Hopeless
by JanCullen86
Summary: In a world where every marriage is arranged Bella Swan grows up dreaming of romance. Can she find happiness and love in a marriage that she never wanted? Set in modern times. AU/AH.
1. Chapter 1

Stephenie Meyers owns all things Twilight.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for being a great beta and friend!

Chapter One

It was 6:06 am and Bella Swan was wide awake. In an hour she would have to wake up for her last day of high school and her graduation ceremony. She had been dreading this day for months, and it was finally here. Today marked her last day of freedom.

When she'd wake up tomorrow morning, she would begin a four year process known as: The Preparation. The Preparation was a costly procedure that got young men and women ready to be sorted and then matched. She would be given tutors to help her with cooking, baking, learning to play an instrument and to speak a foreign language. She would try on an endless amount of clothes in an endless amount of colors to find what looked best on her. Her hair and makeup would be done in ways most flattering to her.

After The Preparation was over, she would spend a month in what was called: The Sorting. She would meet a matchmaker and eligible young men to determine who she was best suited for.

Then she would go through Matching. There was no set time limit for Matching; it could happen as soon as a week after the sorting or take up to two years.

There was no romance. She wouldn't be swept off her feet like in a fairy tale. She would be matched with a man with a similar background to hers, who came from a good family, someone who she might someday be happy with and who she might even grow to love, but it wouldn't be her choice.

She decided to get up then. There was no point in dwelling over something she couldn't control. She got out of bed and stretched in front of the mirror. She sighed when she saw herself. She looked as exhausted as she felt. Her brown eyes had dark brown circles underneath them, making her skin look even paler than usual somehow. Her dark brown hair was in a ponytail as it always was. She sighed when she took it down and saw it fell only to her shoulders. Her older sisters both had such long hair, and hers wouldn't grow.

She looked at the clock then and saw it was after seven. Her ride would be here soon. She showered quickly, something she hated having to do—long showers were one of her favorite things.

She got dressed quickly as well, since her mother had bought a new outfit especially for today. For a moment she thought about wearing something else, but the scene Renee was sure to make, if she wore anything other than the white eyelet sundress hanging in her closet, wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

Glancing out the window of her bedroom, Bella saw a light rain falling.

"Wonderful day to be wearing a dress," she said to herself sighing.

She grabbed her bag, a light jacket and her umbrella when she heard the familiar sound of her best friend's car horn. She felt a lump form in her throat when as she opened the door and saw Jacob parked there in front of her house. This was the last time he would ever pick her up.

She walked to the car and got into the passenger's seat. He was smiling when she got in the car. "Morning," he said like it was any other morning and not the very last time they would ride to school together.

"You look nice today. Is that what your mom picked for you to wear?" he asked.

Bella couldn't respond. She knew herself well enough to know that if she opened her mouth now with this huge lump in the back of her throat, she wouldn't stop crying all the way to school. So, she continued to look at her best friend. His smile was huge, his whole face lit up.

He began to talk as he pulled away from Bella's house. She wasn't paying attention to whatever he was talking about. She looked out the window and nodded her head at what she thought were appropriate times.

He stopped talking and parked the car when they got to their other best friend's house. Jacob honked the horn and out came Angela.

"Hey guys," she said as she climbed into the backseat. Bella turned around to look at her. Angela looked just as upset Bella felt. But Angela had more to be upset about than Bella did.

The Preparation was expensive, and Bella was lucky to be able to afford it. She and her sisters had money put away in a trust for them after their father, Charlie, passed away. Her mother's side of the family had more than enough money to pay for all three of the girls to go through The Preparation numerous times.

Angela, on the other hand, couldn't pay for it. She had talked about getting a loan, but her parents didn't like that idea. Instead, she was taking a scholarship and going off to college. College wasn't the ideal path to take after high school, but for people who were smart like Angela, it was the next best thing to The Preparation.

She would, of course, have to come back once she was finished with school to be sorted. And going to college looked better to matchmakers than the people who went to work after finishing school.

The four years that Jacob and Bella would spend being prepared, Angela would spend getting an education. Bella envied the fact that Angela was getting away from home and would get a chance to experience life for four years, to make her own choices. For the four years that Bella was being poked and prodded, Angela would be free.

Anytime Bella brought up the idea of college to her mother, she was met with the same speech. She didn't _need_ to go to college. She was lucky to be able to afford The Preparation. When Bella would then point out that she knew she didn't _need_ to go to college but that she _wanted_ to, Renee would throw a fit. She called Bella selfish and ungrateful. And if Bella tried to argue her point any further, Renee would declare that she felt faint and confine herself to her bed for the rest of the day.

Her sisters told her if college was so important to her she could go after she was matched. Her sisters, Rosalie and Alice, had both taken classes in business management and baking before opening their bakery. Alice's husband, Jasper, had gotten his degree in education after he and Alice were matched.

Bella knew that going to college after being matched was an option, but in her mind, that defeated the purpose.

"Do we have to go to school today?" Angela asked, staring out the window.

"Yeah, right," Jacob laughed, looking at Angela in the rearview mirror. "You wouldn't ruin your perfect attendance record on the last day of school. Besides, we don't have to do anything today. We just hang out till five when the ceremony starts."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I still just can't believe this is it," Angela said, her voice cracking.

"Angela, are you all right?" Bella asked. It was then that Angela took her eyes away from the window and looked at Bella. She nodded her head slightly and went back to staring at the scenery out the window. Bella turned back around in her seat to look out her own window until they arrived at school.

Jacob parked the car, and the three friends got out and looked at the buildings they'd gone to study in for the last twelve years. All grades were housed on the same campus in different buildings. They made their way into the building known as Forks High School and to their first class for the last time.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Four Years Later

Tanya Wilson had one interview left for the day. Thankfully, it was a Friday, and she would have the weekend to relax. Well, that's not true, she thought to herself. She had seen at least fifty new candidates for Matching, and she needed to get a move on placing them with potential matches if she didn't want to get backed up. She opened her appointment book to see who her last meeting of the day was with.

_It's the same thing every spring_, she thought to herself. Tanya had been working as a matchmaker for almost five years. It was a job she was passionate about. Her own marriage wasn't at all what she pictured for herself.

Even though she knew better, Tanya was a hopeless romantic. She couldn't help but believe in fairy tales and happily ever-afters. Her husband, William, was a good man, and she was happy in their marriage, but she had always imagined more. That's why she took her job as a matchmaker so seriously. If people couldn't choose their own partners then she wanted to find them the best match possible.

Her last appointment for the day was with a young lady named Isabella Marie Swan. Tanya searched around on her desk and found Isabella's file. She seemed like a bright and sweet young woman. She had two older sisters, Rosalie and Mary Alice, who had both been placed in good matches.

A young man by the name of Michael Newton had shown interest in Isabella after meeting her at a ball held last week. Tanya made a note to bring Michael up to see what Isabella thought of him. Everything seemed in order with her file when a form paper clipped to the top of her academic transcript caught her eye. Tanya knew what it was as soon as she laid her eyes on it. Isabella had been labeled a Romantic by her eighth grade teacher.

Mrs. Cope felt that Isabella was developing unrealistic ideas about love and marriage. She felt that if someone didn't speak with her soon, Isabella would continue to develop these ideas. If that happened, then Isabella ran the risk of being labeled _Hopeless_, which would greatly hinder her from ever being placed in a good match.

Tanya was glad to see that Bella had never been labeled a _Hopeless_ or a _Hopeless Romantic_. If she had, it would have been nearly impossible for Tanya to match her.

Being a _Romantic _was simply a warning.

It was quite another story if you had the label _Hopeless_. The people classified as _Hopeless_ were being punished. Either they were called a _Romantic_ when they were younger and didn't stop having dangerous thoughts and ideas about marriage or they just made one too many disparaging remarks about the Matching as a whole.

Normally these people ended up leaving the country because it was nearly impossible to be matched. And if they were matched with someone, it was very easy for the other person to get the match dissolved. Most people found it very embarrassing to be matched with a Hopeless.

After reading through the note for the third time, Tanya had made her mind up. She wasn't going to rest until she found this girl what she grew up always wanting: romance and a happily ever after.

Glancing at the clock, she realized that Isabella would be arriving shortly. No sooner had she gathered all the materials she was going to need for the interview when her assistant Lauren knocked on her door to let her know Isabella had arrived.

"Send her in please," she said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Bella walked into her final interview with one thought in her mind: _When this is over, I'm all done_. Her sisters, her mother, and her preparation team had all told her what to except from this last interview, but Bella was still nervous. She was ushered into a large office where a tall, beautiful strawberry blond woman was waiting for her.

"Hello, you must be Isabella," she said smiling warmly. "I'm Tanya Wilson. How are you doing today?"

"I'm fine. It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Wilson," Bella said, shaking hands with her matchmaker.

"Please, call me Tanya. You can have a seat," she said, gesturing to the sofa. Bella sat down, and Tanya did the same.

"So, do you prefer Isabella or Bella?" she asked smiling warmly.

Of course, Bella preferred to be called Bella, but her mother felt it was time for her to start going by her given name. Bella was about to tell Tanya to call her Isabella when she remembered something—her mother wasn't there. "Bella is fine."

"Great," Tanya said smiling. "Why don't we go ahead and get started. Tell me a little about yourself, Bella."

Bella had gone over how this conversation should go many times, so she knew exactly what she was supposed to say.

"Well, I'm the youngest of three girls. My two older sisters are Rosalie and Mary Alice. The three of us are very close and we see each other regularly. I can speak French and some Spanish. I play the clarinet, and I hope to learn the guitar as well. According to my brothers-in-law, I'm a very good cook. I love children and hope to start a family of my own one day."

After Bella finished listing off her accomplishments, Tanya cleared her throat and shifted around in her seat.

"That's all wonderful, Bella. But it sounded a little rehearsed to me. I can read here in your file about all the wonderful skills you have acquired, but that doesn't really tell me about you. I really want to get to know you, Bella. So tell me something about you that I couldn't find in your file."

"Um..." Bella said, chewing on her bottom lip. She wasn't prepared for these questions. She was supposed to stick to her rehearsed answers. Her mother had warned her about saying whatever popped into her head. That's how she got in trouble with Mrs. Cope in the eighth grade.

"Bella," Tanya said, pulling Bella away from thoughts of her mother. "This isn't a trick. I promise you're not going to get in trouble for anything you tell me. I just genuinely want to know more about you."

The smile on Tanya's face was sincere. She really did want to know what Bella thought, what she liked and what she didn't. Bella stared at her lap trying to decide what to say. Finally she looked up at Tanya and said, "I like to read."

The smile on Tanya's face brightened immediately at Bella's words. "Wonderful. Tell me more."

For the next thirty minutes, Bella's conversation with Tanya felt like one she could have had with her sisters or Angela. It felt nice, and Bella sensed her anxiety slip away the more and more they talked.

"Okay, Bella," Tanya said after a long discussion about who had it worse growing up—Tanya, as the oldest child or Bella, as the youngest.

"I just have a few more questions and then you're free to go. A certain gentleman has expressed an interest in you."

"Really? Who?" Bella asked. She wracked her brain trying to think of all the different guys she had been introduced to in the last month. None of them stood out to her, and there was definitely no one she was interested in, so she couldn't imagine who had liked her.

"Yes, his name is Michael Newton. What do you think about him?"

"Oh, Mike," Bella replied. Now she remembered him. He was a nice guy, but not for her. Her mother liked him though. His parents owned a chain of sporting goods stores, and that was good enough for Renee.

"Well, he's a nice guy, I guess, but he's... never mind," Bella said shaking her head.

"He's what, Bella?" Tanya asked, her eyebrows raised.

Bella sighed. "He's just not who I would choose for myself." As soon as the words left Bella's mouth she regretted them. It wasn't her place to choose someone for herself. Tanya could put her with anyone. Mike was a nice guy; she could do a lot worse.

"Bella, please relax," Tanya said, patting Bella on the arm. "I told you, I want to know what you really think. If you don't like Michael, that's something I want to know."

"Thank you, Tanya."

"You're welcome. Now, final questions, is there anyone you're interested in? And if not, what qualities would you like to have in a spouse?"

"There's isn't anyone I'm interested in." Bella thought about the qualities she wanted in a husband, but she also thought about the answers she was supposed to give to this question. She knew the response Renee wanted her to give forward and backward—someone dependable and hardworking who would be a good father and treats me with respect.

She opened her mouth to give Tanya her rehearsed answer, but she stopped herself. During this whole interview she was open and honest with Tanya about how she felt. If for some reason Tanya was lying about wanting to hear what Bella really thought, there wasn't anything she could do about it now. She might as well tell her what she really wanted.

"What I really want is a best friend," Bella quietly replied, looking down at her lap. "I want him to be kind and loving, and it would also be nice if he could make me laugh. If I had those things, I think I could be happy."

Bella glanced over at Tanya after her little speech. That radiant smile was on her face, but this time there was a trace of sadness underneath.

"I'll do my best to find him for you," she said quietly. "Well, those were all the questions I had. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?" Bella shook her head as both she and Tanya stood.

"It has been a pleasure getting to know you, Bella," Tanya said. "I'll be in touch when I've found someone to suit you."

"Thank you so much, Tanya. I really appreciate it," Bella said, extending her hand out to Tanya. The two women shook hands, and Bella left the office feeling excited and nervous. It was finally over. There was nothing left for her to do but trust Tanya Wilson and wait.

AN: This is my first story and I'm very nervous. Please let me know what you think!

Thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Stephenie Meyers owns all things Twilight.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for being a great beta and a great friend.

* * *

Chapter Two

It had been almost six weeks since Tanya had met with Bella Swan, and she kept coming back to the same conclusion: the best match she could find for Bella was Michael Newton. Tanya was afraid that she was going to have to call Bella and tell her the best she could find for her was a man she wasn't interested in.

He and Bella had a 92 percent compatibility score. That was an excellent score. On paper they made a great pair. Michael came from a successful family and was going to take over running Newton Sporting Goods when his father retired.

Tanya didn't know what to do. Six weeks was a long time for someone with Bella's background to be in the Matching. She pulled her hair up in a ponytail and went back to her computer.

She entered Bella's name in the Matching search engine and waited. Several results popped up after a few seconds.

Over half of the results were eliminated right away because they lived far away and weren't willing to relocate. Bella had made it clear she was close to her family and wanted to be near them. Tanya was able to weed out ten men based on low compatibility scores. Three more were gone due to age. Two men had indicated children weren't something they wanted, so they were out.

"And that's it," she said to no one but herself. "The only choice left is…" Tanya stopped herself in mid sentence. There was a name she didn't recognize left on her computer.

Not knowing if it was too good to be true or if she had made a mistake, she read over his information. After reading everything there was to read about him for the fifth time, she knew it.

They might not have been as good a match on paper as Michael and Bella. They might not have had an excellent compatibility score. But Tanya knew, felt, and believed that this was the man Bella had always dreamed of. And as Tanya made some phone calls to inquire further about this young man, she smiled to herself.

She was going to be able to keep her promise to Bella after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been six and a half weeks since Bella left Tanya's office, and she had heard nothing from her since then. She had been tempted to call Tanya several times to ask how things were going. But fear stopped her every time she almost picked up the phone.

What if Tanya informed her the reason it was taking so long was that no one wanted anything to do with Bella? Not even Michael. Bella shuddered at the thought.

Glancing at the clock, she saw it was well after ten, which meant her mother would be in bed. Bella didn't feel like dealing with her mother's theatrics that day, so she had been hiding in her room all night.

It had taken both her sisters less than three weeks to be matched, a fact Renee was fond of sharing with Bella over and over again. Renee would then complain about how Bella had brought shame upon the family when she was slapped with the Romantic label. Sometimes Renee would even burst into tears mumbling things to herself about her spinster daughter.

Life was a whole lot easier for Bella when she steered clear of her mother altogether. So she spent her days with her sisters at the bakery the three of them co-owned, Just Desserts.

Grabbing her cell phone, Bella headed downstairs to the kitchen. To her surprise and disappointment, her mother was still there. Renee was sitting at the kitchen table talking on the phone. She was using her fake I'm-so-happy-for-you voice and glaring at Bella.

_I knew I should have stayed at Rose's_ _tonight,_ Bella thought.

"That's so wonderful," Renee was saying to the person on the other line. Bella went to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water and tried to leave the kitchen quickly before her mother could say anything to her.

"Could you hold on one second?" Renee asked whoever she was talking to. After covering the phone with her hand she addressed Bella, "Isabella, I need to speak with you when I get off the phone. Sit down."

Bella slowly turned around and walked over to the table. She took a seat next to her mother and slumped down in her chair.

Renee got off the phone soon after Bella sat down, promising whoever she was talking with that they would get together soon and once again offered her congratulations.

"Well, can you guess who that was Isabella?" she asked.

"No," Bella said. She wanted to make a smart remark about how Renee should check the caller-ID next time if she forgets who she's talking to, but it was late and Bella didn't really feel up to a fight.

"That was Sarah Black, Jacob's mother. She was calling with some happy news. Jacob was matched today."

"What?" Bella nearly shouted sitting up straight in her chair. "To who?"

"He got the call last night, and he met the girl today. They hit it off right away, and everything is settled. They'll be getting married soon."

Bella felt tears well up in her eyes. Jake was getting married, and he hadn't even bothered to call her. She opened her cell phone to see if she had missed any calls or had a new voicemail she didn't know about, but there was nothing.

"Why didn't he call me?" she whispered to herself, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Well, I suppose it's because the world doesn't revolve around you, Isabella. Now I'm going to bed. This has been a tiring day," she said, standing from her chair.

Bella frowned; she was happy for Jake but she just couldn't understand why he hadn't bothered to call.

"Good night, dear," Renee said, patting Bella on the shoulder. "And please don't frown up your face like that. You're going to get wrinkles."

Bella sat looking at her phone for what felt like hours willing it to ring. But it never did.

Even though it was late, she called Angela to see if she had heard from Jacob. She hadn't, but Sarah Black had called her mother to tell her the good news. Their phone call was cut short when Ben, the guy Angela had been matched with, called to tell Angela good night.

After ending the phone call with her best friend, Bella climbed the stairs to her room. She got under the covers and was asleep within minutes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day Bella sat in the kitchen of Just Desserts staring at her cell phone.

Normally when she came into the bakery she helped her sisters bake or she ran the cash register. But today, Bella was going to help Rose decorate cupcakes with some children that were coming to the bakery for a party that afternoon. Rose had sent her into the kitchen to get icing, sprinkles, and candies for decorating.

Bella's task was forgotten when she thought she heard her phone ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket but once again she found it to be silent. Bella sighed and sat down on a stool in kitchen. She opened her phone and found Jacob's number. Her finger hovered above the green send button. She had just convinced herself to press the button when Rosalie walked into the kitchen.

"Bella," she said crossing her arms. "Do you have everything ready? The kids will be here in five minutes."

When Bella was little she had been convinced Rose was adopted. She was tall, blond and beautiful while the rest of the Swans were on the shorter side and all had dark hair. Renee had wanted Rose to get into modeling while she was in high school, but Rose didn't want to have to travel all over and leave her little sisters behind, especially because their father died. Boys had always thrown themselves at Rosalie. Not that it did them any good. Rose had faith in the Matching system. She believed that if she had faith, she would be matched with a good man, and she had been. Emmett McCarty was Rose's other half.

Bella remembered being upset when Rose was first matched with Emmett. She didn't want him to take her sister away from her. She tried hard not to like Emmett, but his sunny disposition and sense of humor quickly won Bella over. Now Emmett was the big brother Bella never had. He was also the best, most attentive father to Grace, Rose and Emmett's four year old.

"Um," Bella mumbled looking at anything but her sister. "I thought I heard my phone ringing, and I got distracted. Sorry, Rose."

Sighing, Rosalie shook her head at her little sister. She walked over to the pantry and began gathering the things they would need for that afternoon's event.

Bella pocketed her cell phone and went to help her.

"I wish you would just tell me what's wrong," Rose said, clearly concerned about Bella.

"I already told you nothing is wrong with me. I'm just tired. I haven't been sleeping well."

Arms full, Rose left the kitchen, Bella following behind her. They reached the room where the event was being held and dropped off the cupcake decorations.

Taking a quick look around the room, Bella proclaimed, "Alice did a good job decorating in here." She hoped that if she changed the subject, Rose wouldn't press her any further about what was bothering her.

"Yes," Rose answered, moving a vase of daisies around on a table. Bella breathed a sigh of relief when Rose began checking over the place settings on another table.

Alice poked her head into the room to tell her sisters that their first guest had just arrived.

Bella really missed Alice. She and her husband, Jasper, had only been married for about a year. They were matched almost immediately four years ago, but neither she nor Jasper were in any hurry to get married, a fact that annoyed Renee to no end. When Alice and Jasper finally got married, and Alice moved out of the house, Bella was miserable and left to deal with Renee all on her own.

"Has Renee seen your new hair cut, Alice?" Bella asked. She still couldn't believe that Alice had cut all her hair off. It suited her, but she could only imagine what Renee would say.

"Nope," Alice said running a hand through her short spiky hair. "I'm waiting for you to get matched up with someone before I go over there. I figure she'll be in a good mood and won't care so much about me at that point."

"Okay, Alice," Rose replied, giving Alice a look that Bella couldn't decipher. "Give us two seconds and then send them in."

"Will do, chief," Alice said, saluting Rosalie. Bella giggled until she glanced at her sister. Her brow was furrowed, and she was studying Bella closely.

"I don't know why you're lying to me, Isabella," Rose said, raising one eyebrow. "Just know we will talk about this later."

Protesting with her oldest sister would do Bella no good. Rosalie was six years older than Bella and two years older than Alice. When their father had passed away, Bella took it extremely hard. Rose was there for her in a way their mother wasn't able to be. Rose was nurturing and maternal, and she took care of Bella and stood up for her when Renee was in one of her moods.

Bella nodded and put a smile on her face when two little girls walked into the party room. Rose helped them get set up at the table, and Bella passed out cupcakes.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The party went well, and all the girls seemed to have a good time. Bella helped Alice clean up the event room while Rose was talking to a potential client about a baby shower. As the girls were leaving the room, Rosalie emerged from her office shaking hands with a young woman.

"Please let us know what you decide," she said.

"Are you two done cleaning?" Rose asked, looking between Bella and Alice.

"Yep, we just finished in there. Are we all ready to close up for the night?" Alice asked Rose.

"Not quite. Jessica is watching the front until we've finished up back here. Bella, are you ready?" Rose asked, her lips pursed as she looked at Bella.

Bella sighed, nodding and following her sister into the office. She and Alice sat down on the couch while Rose pulled a chair up.

"All right, Bella," Rose said. "It's getting late, and I want to get home to my daughter and my husband. So let's get right to it. What did mom do this time?"

"Mom didn't do anything, Rose," Bella exclaimed. "Well, not directly. She was just the deliverer of the bad news."

"Okay, so what was the bad news?" Alice wondered, taking Bella's hand.

"Jacob got matched yesterday," Bella stated while looking down.

"And…?" Rose asked. "Why is that bad news? Is this because he and Angela got matched before you?"

"No, well, not entirely," Bella said, shaking her head. "Mom was the one who told me he got matched. I haven't heard from Jake in over a week. We're supposed to be best friends, and he couldn't take the time to call me."

Not being able to talk to Jacob more often was hard on Bella. During The Preparation, she saw him constantly. They both decided to learn French and took their lessons together. When they weren't in lessons or trying on lots of clothes, they would take trips to visit Angela at school. Once Sorting began, the three of them went to all the same events. It meant a lot to her to have her best friends by her side while going through something as life changing as Sorting.

And she was extremely happy that both of her friends had been matched. From what she heard about Ben, he was a great guy, and anyone that was paired with Jacob would have to be wonderful, but a small nagging voice in her head kept wondering why they both got matched before her.

"Oh, Bella," Rose sighed. "You know how busy things get when you first get matched. You saw what Alice and I went through. Jacob loves you; he'll call you when he can."

"Yeah," Alice agreed, nodding. "And Bella, phones work both ways—you could call him."

"I know. If I don't hear from him by tomorrow, I will," Bella told her sisters.

_Well_, Bella thought to herself, _maybe the day after tomorrow_.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Bella didn't have to wait long to hear from Jacob. When she got home from the bakery, there was note on her bedroom door stating Jacob had called and wanted Bella to call him.

She wasted no time calling him back.

"Hello?" Jacob said his voice groggy.

"Jake? I woke you up didn't I?" Bella guessed.

"Nah," he yawned. "I was just getting up. So, I guess you've heard the big news."

"Yeah, Renee told me last night after your mom called to let her know."

"About that, I'm sorry I couldn't be the one to call you, Bells. But things have been so crazy over the past couple of days. I haven't had much time to myself."

"It's okay, Jake. I understand," Bella said flopping down on her bed.

"You're being a lot nicer about all this than Ang was. She yelled at me for about fifteen minutes."

"Angela, yelled at you? I don't believe it."

"Yeah, she wasn't happy," Jacob laughed. "She called me early this morning and asked me what my problem was. I was still sleeping, so I was really confused. Then she went on and on about how I was no friend of hers for not calling her to let her know I had gotten matched. I tried to explain I was really busy, but then she got really angry. She told me she had found five minutes to call me when she got matched to Ben. When I tried to apologize, she told me to save it and hung up the phone."

"What? I can't believe it. I would have paid to hear that conversation. I don't think I've ever heard Ang so much as raise her voice."

"Me either. But then she called right back to apologize. I told her she didn't need to since it was my fault," he said, sighing.

"I'm really happy for you, Jake," Bella told her best friend. "Well, tell me all about her. I'm sure she's wonderful."

"She is, Bella. I think we're going to be really happy."

Jacob and Bella talked for the next hour about his future wife, Carlie. She was kind, funny, beautiful and smart. The way Jacob talked about her, Bella knew he was well on his way to falling in love.

They made plans to get together with Angela as soon as possible. The two friends probably would have talked much longer, but Jacob couldn't stop yawning so Bella told him to go to bed.

Feeling much better than she had in days, Bella got ready for bed. She fell asleep that night thinking about how happy her two friends were and how she hoped to find some of that happiness for herself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning, Bella was rather rudely awoken by her mother banging on her door. Groaning, Bella dragged herself out of bed to see what her mother wanted so early in the morning.

"What is it, Mom?" Bella asked. All she wanted to do was go back to bed.

"The phone's for you. It's your matchmaker," Renee said, beaming at Bella.

Mouth dry, Bella took the phone from her mother. "Hello," she whispered.

"Good morning, Bella," came Tanya's cheery voice.

_Ugh_, Bella thought, _she's a morning person._

"Good morning, Tanya."

"I was just calling to see if you could come by my office this afternoon. I'm not normally open because it's a Sunday, but I felt I had made you wait long enough."

"Yes, I can come by this afternoon. What time did you want to meet?"

"How about two o'clock? Does that work for you?" she asked.

"Yes, I can be there then. Can you hold on for one second?" she asked looking at her mother. Renee had been waving her hands in front of Bella's face trying to get her attention.

"What is it?" she hissed at her mother.

"Well, has she found someone for you? She wouldn't tell me anything."

"I guess so," Bella said. "She just wants me to come by this afternoon to talk to her."

"What time does she want us there?"

Bella stared at her mother, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. "Sorry about that, Tanya. I just have a couple of questions."

"Of course you do, Bella," she laughed. "I'd be worried if you didn't."

"Um, well do you want to meet with me because you've found someone for me?"

"Oh, I didn't say that before? I'm sorry. Yes, I've found a wonderful young man for you. I think you two will really hit it off."

Bella's face broke into a huge smile. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Tanya. I can't wait to hear more about him."

Renee was clearing her throat, obviously not liking being left out of the conversation.

"I have one more question. Did you want to meet with just me or is my mother supposed to come."

Tanya sighed, "Normally, I would say she was more than welcome to come, but there are some things you and I need to discuss alone."

"Oh, okay." Bella nervously glanced at her mother. "I don't think she's going to listen to me," she whispered.

"Let me talk to her," Tanya confidently stated.

"Are you sure?" Bella whispered.

"Yep, give her the phone."

"She wants to talk to you," Bella told her mother, handing her the phone.

Bella didn't know what Tanya said to Renee in the short amount of time they were on the phone, but whatever it was, Renee didn't like it. She hung up the phone with a huff and looked at her daughter.

"I expect a full report when you get back," she called as she walked down the hall to her bedroom.

Bella couldn't wipe the smile off her face as she walked back into her room. Tanya had found Bella, as Tanya had put it, "a wonderful young man." And if that wasn't enough, Tanya had just stood up to Renee and won.

Tanya Wilson had quickly made her way onto Bella's list of favorite people.

* * *

AN: Please let me know what you think. I think I'm more nervous this time than I was last time.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to Twilightzoner for validating my story.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for being a great beta and friend.

I still don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Three

Tanya must have been watching for Bella to arrive, because as soon as Bella got out of her car Tanya was standing in the doorway of her office.

"Bella, it's so good to see you again," she called as Bella made her way to the door. "How have you been?"

"I'm doing well. It's great to see you again, too. How are you doing?" Bella asked, wanting to get the polite small talk out of the way quickly.

"I'm fine. Let's sit down so we can get to business." Bella followed Tanya into her office. She took a seat on the couch and waited for Tanya to begin.

Tanya grabbed a file off her desk and came to sit beside Bella. Clearing her throat, Tanya began speaking. "I have to go over a few things with you before we begin talking about him," she said gesturing to the file in her lap.

"Our meeting today is completely informal. You won't be considered a match until after you and your family meet with Edward and his family. Then Edward will meet with his matchmaker, and you will meet with me and sign the Matching Contract. That document makes the match official and removes you both from the Matching database, and then the two of you will be free to marry."

"His name is Edward?" Bella asked. She felt a fluttering in her stomach hearing the name of her potential husband for the first time.

"Yes," Tanya nodded smiling at Bella. "His name is Edward Cullen. But before we talk anymore about him, do you have any questions for me?"

Bella shook her head. She had seen both of her sisters go through this process. She knew what to expect; what she wanted now was more information about Edward.

Tanya laughed. "Well, I can tell you want to get started." Opening his file she handed Bella a picture. "That's Edward."

Bella looked at the picture and smiled. He was beautiful. Renee hated when Bella called men beautiful. Women were beautiful, flowers were beautiful, and men were supposed to be handsome. But at that moment, the only word that came to mind as she studied his picture was beautiful.

Edward had a head full of thick unruly copper hair. His eyes were a bright emerald green that took Bella's breath away. His smile was uneven, rising higher on one side of his perfect face. Bella's inspection of Edward's features was cut short by Tanya's giggling.

"Sorry, Bella, I just wish you could see the look on your face."

Bella felt her face grow hot. "I didn't mean to stare. He's just really good looking."

Tanya nodded. "He really is. But that's not why I chose him for you." She started going through his file until she found the paper she was looking for and handed it to Bella.

Edward Anthony Cullen was 24 years old. He was the only child of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. Carlisle was a successful doctor who had his own practice, and Esme was a speech pathologist. Edward had gone to college to study business. It was his hope to open a small business of some kind in the future. He was very close to his family and wanted to have one of his own.

Edward's personality test showed high levels of compassion and intelligence. Reading about Edward was great. But she couldn't get one thought out of her head.

"He went to college?" Bella asked. Renee wasn't going to like that, at all. She could only imagine what she would have to say about that fact.

"Yes," Tanya said, her smile flattering slightly. "That's part of the reason why I wanted you to come alone. I knew from what you briefly told me about your mother, and from our phone conversation earlier today, that she wouldn't like that."

"No, she won't like that at all," Bella said, placing Edward's picture on Tanya's coffee table.

"Bella, there is nothing she can do about it."

"I know," Bella whispered. "But..."

"No, no buts, Bella. This is what you're going to do. You're not going to tell her about Edward not going through The Preparation. By the time she finds out, I'm sure she won't care."

Bella wanted to disagree because she knew that no matter when Renee found out, she would care. But she had to admit that even if Renee threw fit after fit and complained or made disparaging comments about Edward going to college, they were going to be matched and nothing could change that.

Bella began to reread Edward's information when something else caught her eye. "He's 24. Does that mean he's been in the Matching for two years?"

"He has. That is one of the reasons why it took me so long to match the two of you together. At first I was looking for people who had been in the Matching for less than a year. But the only person I could find to suit you was Michael. For a while, I was afraid Michael was going to be the only man I could find for you—the database thinks you two would make a perfect match. But I knew that's not what you wanted, so I didn't stop looking. When I found Edward, I had accidentally widened the search to two years. I'm glad I did or I might still be looking."

Bella was glad she did, too. She was actually looking forward to meeting him, something that really surprised her.

She felt so lucky to have gotten Tanya as her matchmaker. She thought about Alice's matchmaker, Jane, and shuddered. According to Alice, the only question Jane asked her was if there was anyone she was interested in. When Alice tried to tell Jane about herself, she was dismissed immediately. Alice came home crying that day sure she was going to be matched with a monster. Apparently, Jane made all of her matches based on compatibility scores, and she sometimes took preferences in account. Luckily for Alice, she and Jasper had an extremely high compatibility score.

Tanya informed Bella that she had already been in contact with Edward's matchmaker, and he met with Edward yesterday. "All we need to do now is figure out the best time for you both to meet. He and his family are free tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, I think so." Bella tried to remember if there was any reason her family wouldn't be able to meet tomorrow. "I do know that Renee wants the first meeting to be at our house."

"I don't think that will be a problem," Tanya said, making a note. "I'm going to call his matchmaker now and let him know that you are available tomorrow afternoon, and that you would like the meeting to occur at your house."

While Tanya was on the phone, Bella couldn't get one thought out of her head. If Edward had met with his matchmaker yesterday, then he had seen a picture of Bella. She wondered what he thought of her. Did he find her as half as attractive as she found him? What if he didn't? What if they didn't get along? Why did it take him so long to be matched?

She knew what Rose would say. It took him so long to be matched because he belonged with Bella and she had just entered the Matching.

"That's all settled," Tanya said, hanging up her phone. "The Cullens will be at your house tomorrow at three o'clock." Tanya stood, and she and Bella made their way to the door.

"Wow," Bella breathed. "I can't believe this is really happening."

"I know it can be overwhelming, but this is where your family comes in. They'll be there to support you and answer all your questions. And Bella, if you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to call me."

Bella smiled, hesitating before enveloping Tanya in a big hug. "You don't know how happy I am that I got you for my matchmaker," Bella said. "I don't think I could ever say thank you enough."

When Bella pulled away, Tanya had tears in her eyes. "It has been a great pleasure to find someone for you, Bella. I see a lot of myself in you. I really hope you'll be happy."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Bella pulled up in front of her house, she sat in her car for a minute to gather her thoughts.

As soon as she walked in the door, Renee was going to grill her for who knows how long about what she and Tanya had discussed. She wished more than ever that her sisters were around to help her deal with Renee's craziness.

Sighing, Bella got out of the car and made her way to the front door. Before she could even put her key in the lock, the door swung open to reveal her mother.

"Don't do that," Bella demanded, placing her hand on her chest to feel her racing heart.

"What did she say?" Renee asked, pulling her daughter into the house.

Instead of answering, Bella simply reached into her purse and pulled out the picture of Edward that Tanya had given her. Bella walked into the kitchen with Renee right behind her.

"What's his name? How old is he? What does he do? I need some information, Isabella," she huffed.

"His name is Edward Cullen. He's 24 years old, and he wants to open his own business someday," Bella said, hoping Renee wouldn't harp too much on Edward's age.

"What do his parents do?" Renee asked.

Don't roll your eyes, Bella told herself. "His father is a doctor, and his mother is a speech pathologist."

Before Renee could ask any more questions, Bella informed her of the Cullens' visit the next day. "They'll be here at three tomorrow afternoon."

"They're coming here tomorrow? Oh, there's so much to be done," Renee said and opened the refrigerator. "I'm not prepared for company. I'm going to have to go to the grocery store. Is there anything you need while I'm out?"

"No, I'm good," Bella replied, smiling to herself for successfully distracting her mother before heading up the stairs to her room.

She knew it wasn't official until tomorrow, but she had to call everyone to tell them her news. First she called her sisters at the bakery. Alice shrieked and Rose said, "I told you so." They made plans for Jessica and Bree, two of their employees, to watch the store the next day so they could be with Bella.

Then she called Angela. She was very happy for Bella. She couldn't wait to meet Edward and for Bella to meet Ben. Every time Bella talked to Angela about Ben, she could hear the smile in her voice. She was hopeful that one day soon she would sound that way when talking about Edward.

Bella tried to call Jacob several time throughout the day, but each time she got his voicemail. She finally left him a message asking him to call her back before she began getting ready for bed.

Renee knocked on her door almost as soon as she got under the covers.

"Come in," Bella called.

"I'm glad you're going to sleep early tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a big day."

Bella nodded her head, wanting Renee to get to the point.

"What are you going to be wearing tomorrow?" she asked, glancing at Bella's closet.

"I don't know yet. I just figured Alice or Rose could pick something out for me." Bella sighed. Here it comes. Renee is going to make me try on everything in my closet, she thought.

"That's sound fine," Renee said, smiling at Bella. "Well, have a good night's sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

After Renee left her room, Bella stared at the door for a couple of minutes.

"What in the hell has gotten into her?" she wondered out loud.

Nerves kept Bella up much of the night. She tossed and turned for hours until sleep finally claimed her sometime after six am.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Bella."

Oh, crap, Bella thought.

"Beeelllaaaa."

Why, me?

"Jelly Bean. Jelly Belly. Wake up!"

It's early, way too early. Bella knew she had just fallen asleep. What is she doing here?

"Belly Button," Alice's voice crooned trying to get Bella out of bed.

"Go away, Alice," Bella groaned.

This was one of Alice's favorite games when they were growing up. She would come into Bella's room early in the morning and try to wake her up in the most annoying way possible. While she was living there Bella, had become adept at ignoring her, but now she was out of practice.

"Come on, Button get up! Belly Welly, time to wakey wakey."

Ignore her. Ignore her. Ignore her. Bella repeated to herself over and over again.

"Smelly Belly, get up, up, up," she sang poking Bella in the head. Not being able to take it anymore, Bella sprang up in bed.

"Damn it, Alice," she screeched. "What is your problem? Get the hell out of my room and don't come back. I swear Alice if you don't get the fu-"

"Isabella Marie Swan, where in the world did you learn such horrible language?" Renee screamed.

Bella swung her eyes away from Alice, who was sitting on her bed shaking with silent laughter, to her mother and Rose who were standing in the doorway of her room with their arms crossed. Thankfully, Rose seemed to be directing her angry stare at Alice.

"I'm waiting, young lady," Renee huffed, tapping her foot.

"Sorry," Bella said, wishing she could give Alice one good slap.

Before Renee could give Bella what she was sure would be a lengthy lecture, Rosalie spoke up. "Mom, why don't you let Alice and I help Bella pick something out to wear? You can go relax and get yourself ready. We'll call you if we need you."

Renee surveyed the scene in Bella's room, nodding her head once. "Thank goodness you're here, Rosalie. You've always been the one child I know I can depend on," she said, patting Rosalie on the arm, leaving the room.

As soon as Renee was out of sight, Bella reached over and pinched Alice hard on the arm. "Thanks a lot," she hissed at her sister.

"Ow! That really hurt, Bella. It's not my fault you have such a dirty mouth."

"No, you just wanted to provoke me so Renee would get mad at me and forgot about you and your stupid hair."

"Yeah well, you didn't have to pinch me that hard. It's going to leave a mark."

"Well, you-,"

"That's enough," Rosalie exclaimed from the doorway. "Alice, get Bella's black dress out of the closet."

Alice stuck her tongue out at Bella as she jumped up from the bed.

Rose took Alice's place beside Bella on her bed and put her arm around her sister. "How are you feeling today?"

"I don't think I've been up long enough to be feeling much of anything besides annoyance," Bella said, barely resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at Alice.

Sighing, Rose continued, "Are you nervous at all?"

"Yeah, I'm nervous. I'm really nervous," Bella said, resting her head on Rose's shoulder.

"Here it is," Alice proclaimed and held up Bella's simplest black dress. She placed it on the back of Bella's desk chair and hopped on the end of the bed.

"So, what are you most nervous about?" Rose asked.

"Renee," Bella mumbled.

"You don't have anything to worry about there, Bella," Alice said. "She's going to be on her best behavior today."

"I'm not so sure. She might be until she finds out that Edward went to college."

"He did?" Alice asked.

"Yeah, that's why Tanya wanted me to meet her alone. She knew Renee would lose it if she came with me."

The girls sat quietly for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I don't think you're going to have anything to worry about. It might not even come up. If it does, she's not going to make a scene in front of his family. She'll save her tantrum until after they leave. And if you need to, you can stay at my house tonight," Rose said squeezing Bella's shoulder.

"By the way, Bella, he's really cute. Renee showed us his picture yesterday," Alice said.

"When did you see Renee yesterday?" Bella asked.

"She came by the bakery to tell us you had finally been matched with someone," Alice replied, rolling her eyes. "Oh, and she requested that we bring something fresh from the bakery for today. She said she couldn't serve anything stale to the doctor and his son."

"You've got to be kidding me?" Bella groaned.

Rose sighed, "It's getting late. Bella, why don't you go take a shower. When you get out, Alice and I will do your hair."

"Wait a minute. Caius isn't coming to do my hair and makeup?" Bella was confused Caius did the family's hair and makeup before every big occasion.

"We know you don't like him," Rose said. "I told Renee that Alice and I would get you ready."

"Thanks, Rose, that makes me feel a little bit better. I don't like how he always leers at me. It's gross."

"You can thank me later. We let you sleep in way too long. They'll be here soon."

For the first time, Bella glanced at her alarm clock. It was 1:45 pm. "Crap. Why did you all let me sleep so late?"

"Are you kidding me?" Alice laughed. "If we had woken you up any earlier you would have punched me in the face."

"No, it's the way you choose to wake me up," Bella insisted.

"No, you just don't know how to take a joke-,"

"Look, it's getting late, and I'm really getting tired of the bickering. Alice, leave her alone. Bella, go get in the shower, now," Rose said, her voice stern.

Bella stayed in the shower longer than she intended which didn't leave her sisters with a lot of time to do her hair. They decided to leave it down and blow dry it straight. They put very little makeup on Bella, just mascara and light pink lip gloss.

By the time she was dressed in her black dress and black kitten heels, it was time for the Cullens to arrive.

"You look beautiful, Bella," Alice gushed.

"You really do, Bella," Rose said.

Bella smiled shyly at her sisters. "Thank you," she said.

"Let's get downstairs before they get here," Alice said, checking her own hair in the mirror.

"Are Emmett and Jasper coming?" Bella asked as she and her sisters made their way to the living room.

"Jasper really wanted to come but he made plans a while ago with some of the other teachers at the high school that he couldn't cancel," Alice said.

"Emmett was going to come, but I didn't think it was a good idea," Rose sighed.

"Why not?" Bella asked her sister.

"He kept going on and on about how he couldn't wait to meet the little punk that thought he was good enough for you. Then he started talking about what he would do to Edward if he ever hurt you." Rose shook her head. "So, I convinced him to stay home with Grace."

"He was probably just joking Rose," Alice laughed.

"I know that and I love him, but him not being here is one less thing I have to worry about," Rose sighed. "Come on, let's go see if we pass inspection."

Renee's back was to the girls when they filed into the living room.

Rose cleared her throat. "Mom, how does Bella look?"

Renee turned around and took in the sight of her three daughters.

"Isabella, you look very nice. I wish you had curled her hair or something though," she confessed, looking at Rosalie. "But Isabella's hair looks a lot better than Mary Alice's, so I guess that's something."

Alice glared at Renee and was about to say something to her that would no doubt start a fight when the doorbell rang.

"Oh my goodness," Renee exclaimed. "I'll get the door. Isabella, sit down on the love seat. Rose and Alice, find a seat but leave the seat next to Isabella open." She said all of this quickly while running out of the room to answer the door.

Bella collapsed onto the love seat, her heart pounding furiously. She looked at her sisters who were smiling at her.

"Relax, Bella," Rose said. "Just be yourself and everything will be fine."

Bella nodded her head, trying to relax. But she heard muffled voices coming from the front of the house and felt her hands begin to shake. She couldn't believe this was it. The man she was going to marry was in her home. She imagined this moment many times growing up. She always thought her mother would have to drag her down the stairs and force her to meet a man she had no interest in marrying. But thanks to Tanya, the nerves Bella were currently feeling weren't nerves of dread—she was actually excited.

Yes, there were things she was nervous about, but none of those things had to do with Edward. For the first time in her life, Bella felt what Rosalie had always talked about. She had faith that everything was going to work out for the best.

"Isabella," Renee called, breaking Bella away from her thoughts.

Bella looked up to see three people standing in the doorway of her living room. But her eyes immediately locked with his.

Green eyes that had taken her breath away in a simple picture were nothing compared to the real thing. He studied Bella closely for a moment before his crooked smile made its way onto his face.

Bella slowly stood from the couch as Edward made his way over to her. "Isabella?" he asked.

"Yes," Bella whispered, heart pounding.

"It's nice to meet you," he said. "I'm Edward."

* * *

Next chapter we get to spend some more time with Mr. Cullen. I wonder how that's going to go?

Thanks for reading! And please let me know what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks to Twilightzoner for validating my story.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for being a great beta and friend.

Once again you all have blown me away with the response to this story. I can't believe so many people have been reading and enjoying it, especially considering that I'm a first time author and that this story is rated PG-13. So thank you very much!

There were a lot of questions about whether or not any of the story would be told in Edward's point of view. The answer is no, we won't get any EPOV in this story. But trust me, the story works a whole lot better that way.

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Four

Bella and Edward held each other's gaze for what Bella felt were hours. She could have stood there for the rest of forever looking into his eyes. But the beautiful moment she was having with the beautiful man in front of her was interrupted by her mother.

"Isabella," Renee called, pulling Bella's focus away from Edward. "Don't be rude, come say hello to Dr. and Mrs. Cullen."

Bella regretfully stepped away from Edward and made her way over to his parents. "It's very nice to meet you, Dr. and Mrs. Cullen," she said.

"Please, call me Esme, dear," Edward's mother replied. "And he's Carlisle." She gestured toward her husband.

As she was about to introduce her sisters to the Cullens, Renee spoke up.

"These are my oldest two daughters, Rosalie and Mary Alice. I'm so sorry their husbands couldn't be here tonight. They both had previous engagements that couldn't be rescheduled on such short notice."

"That's fine," Esme said. "Tonight is about getting to know Bella."

Bella smiled shyly and looked down at her shoes.

"Why don't we all take our seats," Renee said. "Help yourself to any refreshments; the petit fours are from the bakery Rosalie and Mary Alice own."

"Thank you," Carlisle answered, taking a seat on the couch. "You have a lovely home."

"Thank _you_," Renee said, smiling sweetly at Carlisle.

"Isabella," Edward said, drawing Bella's attention away from her mother.

"Yes," she breathed.

"Which do you prefer to be called, Isabella or Bella? When Stefan, my matchmaker, first told me about you, he said your name was Bella."

"You can call me-" Bella started before she was interrupted by Renee.

"We called her Bella when she was a little girl, but now that she's a young a woman we call her Isabella."

_He was talking to me._ Bella thought as she looked at her mother.

"So, Edward, you want to open your own business. What kind were you thinking of?" Rosalie asked.

"I've actually always wanted to own my own restaurant," Edward said, running a hand through his hair.

"What about you, Isabella? What is it that you want to do?" Edward asked, looking at Bella. She couldn't help but notice that the smile had left his face.

"Isabella, is actually part owner of Just Desserts, the bakery. She's been sort of a silent partner up till now. So, now that she's all done with The Preparation and has been matched, she's free to work there or not," Renee interjected before Bella could respond to Edward's question.

"What kind of cuisine did you want to serve at your restaurant Edward?" Rosalie asked, trying to ignore Renee.

"Probably Italian," Edward answered, raking his hand back through his hair.

"Bella, loves Italian food," Alice said. "She's always talking about how she would love to go to Italy one day. Right, Bella?"

Bella nodded her head. "It seems like such a romantic place."

Renee cleared her throat loudly, sending Bella a dirty look that she didn't understand. What did she do wrong?

"So, Esme, what exactly does a speech pathologist do?" Renee asked, quickly changing the subject.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The rest of the evening transpired in the same fashion. Whenever someone directed a question at Bella, Renee answered it. The few times Bella was able to speak, Renee would have something to say that undermined Bella's previous statement.

Halfway through the evening, Bella gave up even bothering to speak at all.

She sat quietly in her corner of the loveseat wishing she could disappear. She looked down at the floor, nodding along to the conversation going on around her.

She could feel eyes on her from all around the room. When she stole a glance at Edward, the look on his face broke her heart.

He had been looking at his mother, but when he felt Bella's gaze on his face, he turned to look at her. His eyes had lost the sparkle and shine that had drawn Bella in. Now they were cold and dark—she swore they looked black. The uneven smile was no longer to be seen, his mouth was now set in a hard line.

As soon as his eyes had swung to Bella, they moved back to his mother. Bella took in a shuddering breath and returned her eyes to floor. The urge to cry and scream were overwhelming, but that wouldn't do her any good. So instead, she concentrated on keeping the tears at bay. She didn't want to embarrass herself anymore than she already was.

She took deep steady breaths and counted to a hundred over and over again. Before she knew it, she heard fabric rustling all around her. The Cullens were preparing to leave. Bella slowly stood, trying not trip over her own feet.

Esme and Renee were discussing getting together soon to go over wedding plans. Bella felt sick.

_Wedding_, she thought. _He hates me, and there's still going to be a wedding. _

Pleasantries were passed around and Bella mumbled her thanks to the Cullens for coming.

But she noticed Edward wasn't speaking. Trying to be a good hostess and show him she wasn't completely mute, she said, "Thank you for coming, Edward."

He looked at her briefly. The slight nod of his head was the only acknowledgement he gave Bella that her words were understood and received. When Renee closed the door behind the Cullens, Bella broke down.

Fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned her attention to her mother. "Why did you do that?" Bella demanded, barely above a whisper.

She thought she would scream and cry or fly into a rage. But the devastation and embarrassment she felt were too great, the weight on her chest too heavy.

"What in the world are you talking about, Isabella?" Renee asked, actually perplexed by Bella's tears.

"You didn't let me say anything all night. Anytime I tried to answer a question, you beat me to it. Then if I was able to answer something, you corrected me or made me seem like some dumb kid who didn't know what she was talking about. I have never felt more embarrassed in my entire life," Bella said, hugging herself tightly.

"I did no such thing," Renee said, shaking her head. "Maybe I dominated the conversation a little, but it wasn't intentional." She walked back in the living room and began cleaning up after her guests.

Rose made her way over to Bella and put her arms around her while whispering soothing words to try to quiet her crying.

"Mom, I can't believe you," Alice screamed. "Why would you do that to, Bella? I don't think she said twenty words all night."

"You, Mary Alice, are just as overdramatic as your sister. Rosalie, please tell your sisters they're overreacting," Renee begged, looking at her eldest.

Rosalie gently removed Bella from her arms and passed her over to Alice.

She regarded her mother closely for a moment before she began speaking, "I cannot believe the way you behaved tonight. You not only embarrassed Bella, you embarrassed yourself. How can you not understand what you did was wrong?

"Look at your daughter. She can hardly breathe she's crying so hard. Why did you do this to her? Why do you always do things like this to her? You never treated me or Alice this way. Please, help me to understand because it makes no sense to me."

Bella glanced over at her mother, waiting to hear what she had to say. Minutes passed before Renee finally responded to Rosalie's questioning. "I didn't have to worry about you and Mary Alice screwing anything up the first time you met Jasper and Emmett."

"What are you talking about?" Alice exclaimed. "How was Bella going to screw anything up?"

"The same way she came home in the eighth grade with a letter saying she was being labeled a Romantic," Renee hissed, eyes darting back and forth between her daughters.

"You know how your sister feels about Matching. What if she said something to offend Edward and his family? The Matching Contract hasn't been signed yet. What if Edward went to his matchmaker and refused to sign? He would have just cause because of Bella's history. Then where would she be? No one would agree to match her with anyone after that."

"So, it was better to have me look like I couldn't speak for myself?" Bella asked, her crying subsiding.

"I had to make a choice, and I think I made the right one," Renee said, leaving the living room.

"Alice," Rosalie called after a moment. "Will you go upstairs with Bella and help her pack a bag? I'm taking her to my house tonight."

"Okay. Come on, Button," she said rubbing Bella's back.

While Alice helped Bella pack she could hear raised voices coming from downstairs. She wished she knew what was being said.

"Let's go, Button," Alice called once Bella had a few things packed.

The girls headed downstairs to find Rosalie waiting for them. "Are we ready to go?" she asked looking at Alice.

"Yeah, we're ready," she answered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Things were quiet when Bella and Rosalie got to her house after dropping Alice off. Bella insisted she was too tired to talk ,and Rosalie let her go to bed only after she promised they would talk the next day.

When Bella woke up the next morning, it took her a moment to remember why she was at her sister's house. But then the previous night's events invaded her mind and she groaned, burrowing back under the soft white comforter.

She stayed hidden, replaying her first meeting with Edward and his parents over and over again. She stayed in her little cocoon for as long as possible until the rumblings her stomach were making could no longer be ignored. She made her way to the kitchen where the smell of breakfast and the sound of hushed voices could be heard.

"Morning, Bella," came Alice's sing song voice.

Bella loved her sister but all the cheerfulness in the morning was too much for her to take.

"Are you hungry?" Rose asked. "We made waffles."

"Waffles sound good," Bella replied, her voice scratchy from all the crying she had done the night before.

"Sit down," Alice called jumping up from her seat at the kitchen table. "I'll fix your plate."

Bella sat stiffly in her chair while Alice filled her plate with food. She set it and a glass of orange juice down in front of her sister with a pat on her shoulder.

"Where are Emmett and Grace?" Bella asked as she poured syrup over her waffles.

"Since the sun is actually out today, they're off having daddy-daughter time at the park," Rosalie answered. "He had a hard time getting her to go once she found out Aunt Bella was here."

At this bit of news, Bella smiled. She loved little Gracie with all her heart. Bella ate quietly for a moment while Rose and Alice discussed a cake the bakery had been commissioned to design for an upcoming wedding.

"Why aren't you two at the bakery?" Bella asked after she had her fill of waffles and fruit.

"We decided that Bree and Jessica could take care of things by themselves for one more day," Rose said. "We wanted to talk to you, to see how you were feeling after last night."

"I'm all right," Bella mumbled, taking a long drink from her glass of juice.

Alice and Rose exchanged a look that Bella didn't like. "What?" she asked, her eyes darting back and forth between them.

"We need to talk about what happened last night." Rose scooted her chair closer to Bella and grabbed her hand. "You'll feel better."

Knowing she was outnumbered, and not feeling alert enough to lie her way out this conversation, Bella sighed. "Fine, I feel like crap. And not just about Mom and her crazy behavior either.

"None of this is fair. I don't think anyone should have the right to tell me who I have to marry, especially if that person can't stand to look at me or speak to me. Did you see the way he looked at me last night?" she asked her sisters.

"I still don't understand what I did to him. It couldn't have been anything I said. I don't even think I said one whole sentence all night."

"Bella, you're not the first person to feel this way, and I'm sure you won't be the last," Alice said sighing heavily.

Her words took Bella back to the eighth grade.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nine Years Earlier

Mrs. Cope was Bella's favorite teacher of all time. She was friendly and approachable; Bella felt like she could talk to her about anything.

So, when Mrs. Cope told her class she would be meeting with them individually before graduating, Bella was excited. Then when Mrs. Cope scheduled their meeting during Bella's gym class, Bella's excitement grew.

"How are you today, Bella?" Mrs. Cope asked when Bella sat down in front of her desk.

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm doing well. So, are you excited about graduating?" Mrs. Cope asked, smiling at Bella.

"Yeah, I guess so," Bella sighed.

"You don't sound too excited. Is everything all right?"

"Well, my eldest sister Rose has been in The Preparation for almost two years now, and my sister Alice is going to starting in a couple of weeks. They're both really busy and I miss them a lot."

"That's understandable. But that doesn't really explain why you're not excited about graduating."

Bella sighed again. "I guess I just keep thinking about how it will be my turn to go through The Preparation soon."

"Four years isn't exactly soon, Bella."

Bella nodded. "I know, but both of my sisters are always talking about how fast high school went by and then, before I know it, I'll be the one being prepared."

Mrs. Cope quietly regarded Bella for a moment. "Bella, I don't think I understand. You don't want to go through The Preparation?"

"Well, no. I don't want to be sorted or matched either. I mean, what if I don't want to marry whoever I get matched with. What if I love someone else?"

"Well, Bella, the love you'll have with the man you're matched with is going to be stable and true. You two will be practically perfect for each other."

"But," Bella said while chewing on her bottom lip. "I just don't know if that's what I want. I've always thought when you got married it should be romantic, you know, like in fairy tales."

"Bella, you do understand why Matching was started, right? People got married thinking it would be like in the fairy tales—they thought they had found their soul mates. But people got divorced left and right, spouses cheated on each other, children were separated from one parent or another. And that's when the Matching started, people thought if everyone was placed with someone with similar backgrounds and values, then marriages and families wouldn't break up and they were right. The Matching is a good thing, Bella."

Bella sat thinking for a moment before she began speaking again. "I know all that, but I still think I should be able to choose for myself."

Mrs. Cope sighed and looked at Bella with sad eyes. "I think you better head on to your next class. This is a conversation you should continue with your mother."

Bella wanted to tell Mrs. Cope that she could never talk about this with her mother. Renee would have a heart attack. Before leaving for home that afternoon, Mrs. Cope gave Bella a letter for her mother. Bella didn't think much about it until Renee read the letter and all the blood drained from her face.

Renee cried and went on and on about how Bella would never matched. Bella didn't understand what was going on until Rose explained it to her.

Mrs. Cope reported her conversation with Bella to the principal, who added the label of Romantic to Bella's record.

Apparently, thinking the way Bella did about love and marriage was strongly discouraged. She would be closely watched from here on out to make sure the thoughts she was having didn't develop into anything more. If they did, she was going to be labeled a Hopeless Romantic and pretty much be guaranteed to never be matched.

From then on, Bella was very careful to keep her thoughts on matching to herself. The only people she was ever truly open with were her sisters. She never knew who might be willing to report her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I know it sometimes might not seem fair, but think about all the people we know who are happily married. The Sorting and Matching aren't perfect, but they do work," Alice said taking Bella away from her musing.

"She's right, Bella," Rose said, giving Bella's hand another squeeze. "I know that Renee was wrong last night, but she just doesn't want to see you end up like Aunt Victoria."

Victoria was a name that wasn't spoken often by anyone in Bella's family. But Bella knew her story well. Victoria was Charlie's younger sister. When it was time for Charlie to go through The Preparation, his family couldn't afford it for both their children, so the decision was made to send Charlie through The Preparation and Victoria went to college on a full scholarship.

While she was there, she met a man named James and fell in love. When it was time for her to come home and be sorted, Victoria refused. She told her parents she was in love with James and no one could keep them apart.

Charlie and his parents begged Victoria to come home numerous times. Their pleading did no good and Victoria ran away with James. Needless to say, this caused a great deal of shame within the Swan household.

Charlie's parents refused any contact with Victoria, even when she called to let them know she and James had a son, Laurent. This news really hurt Bella's family. Victoria's child would always have to pay for the mistakes of his parents.

Being a child of an unmatched relationship made it hard to get matched as an adult. There was a certain stigma that came with being a child of an unmatched relationship. The parents of these children were seen as being untrustworthy, and their children were often guilty by association.

When it became time for Laurent to be matched, anyone who he was placed with could refuse the pairing, and they would be within their rights.

Growing up, Renee would tell the story of Victoria and James as a warning to her girls. But Bella secretly found it to be romantic. Running off into the sunset with her true love sounded like something straight out of a fairy tale.

Now that she was older, she understood the selfishness of what Victoria had done. If Bella's grandparents had allowed Victoria back into their lives after she ran off with James, it would have affected them all.

By welcoming her back into the family, they would have made it much harder for Rosalie, Alice, and Bella to be matched with anyone because of the mistake their aunt made. Bella needed to be a part of her sister's lives. She knew without a doubt they would support her if she decided to be in an unmatched relationship or if she decided not to get matched at all. But Bella wouldn't make the people she loved have to make that choice. She wouldn't make her niece suffer because of something she did.

"I know she doesn't want me to end up like Victoria. I don't want to end up like her either," Bella said, shaking her head. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"I mean about Edward. What am I supposed to do to keep him from hating me?"

"He doesn't hate you, Bella. He was probably just nervous, and I'm sure he was at least a little overwhelmed by Mom. You two just need a chance to get to know each other. Jasper and I didn't hit it off until we got to spend some time together alone, and I was able to see what a great guy he was," Alice said.

Bella wanted to believe that it was going to be as simple as spending time together to get Edward to warm up to her. A big part of her wanted to believe, but a small nagging part kept remembering the look on his face the night before.

Rose's phone started ringing. Sighing, she let go of Bella's hand to answer it. The way her face frowned up when she looked at the caller-ID told Bella all she needed to know about who was on the other line.

"Hello, Mother," Rose said.

She glanced at Bella a moment before she walked out of the kitchen with the phone.

"Why did she do that?" Bella asked. "I want to know what they're talking about."

Alice sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry about it. She'll tell us what they talked about when she comes back."

"I feel like I'm five again. Pretty soon you guys will be spelling the big words so I can't figure out what you're talking about."

Laughing, Alice took her breakfast plate to the sink. "Oh Bella, stop be so m-e-l-o-d-r-a-m-a-t-i-c and come help me wash the dishes."

The girls had just put the last glass away when Rose returned to the room.

"What did she want?" Bella asked, wasting no time.

"Well, she said she called to talk to Grace, but I knew that's not what she really wanted."

"And what was that?"

"She called to talk to you. Tanya, your matchmaker called the house looking for you this morning. She said she also tried your cell phone but it went straight to voicemail."

"Did Renee know what Tanya wanted?" Bella asked with a tremor in her voice.

"Yes, she wanted to know when you would be by her office to sign the Matching Contract. Apparently, Edward met with his matchmaker and signed his contract early this morning."

"What?" Bella asked.

"That's what Mom said."

Bella couldn't understand it. Why would he be in such a rush to sign the contract if he could barely stand to look at her?

"Well, what else did she say? You were on the phone long enough for Alice and me to wash all the dishes."

"After Renee talked to Tanya, she called Esme Cullen. Esme told Mom that she didn't feel like she got the chance to talk to you at all last night. She wanted to speak to you to find out a good time for the two of you to get together and talk.

"For some reason, Mom thought Esme wanted to include her in her plans. She didn't like it when Esme told her it would just be the two of you. Mom gave her your cell phone number, and Esme said she was going to give you a call right away."

"Go get your phone, Bella," Alice said bouncing on her feet.

Bella walked to the guest room and retrieved her phone. Turning it on, she saw that she did have some new voicemail messages.

She joined her sisters back in the kitchen as she listened to them. The first one was a brief one from Tanya asking Bella to call her as soon as possible. The next was from Jacob. He was going out of town and wanted Bella to call him. Bella couldn't help but smile as she listened to the next message from Esme.

_"Hello, Bella, I know your mother said you wanted to go by Isabella, but your outgoing message says Bella, so that's what I'm going to call you. I was just calling to say how sorry I am that we didn't get a chance to chat last night. So, I'm inviting you out to lunch. You can pick the time and place. My cell number is 555-7481. Enjoy the rest of your day, dear. I'll talk to you soon."_

"Well, what did she say?" Alice asked.

"She said she was sorry we didn't get a chance to talk last night and that she wants us to have lunch soon."

"That's nice of her," Rose said. "When are you going to call her back?"

"Sometime today, I guess. I think I'm going to call Tanya first though."

"Well, why don't you do that while Alice and I call Just Desserts to check on Jessica and Bree?"

Nodding, Bella headed back into the guestroom and sat on the bed. She didn't really want to call Tanya and have to talk about her first meeting with Edward, but she knew putting off signing the contract would do her no good.

Tanya's assistant, Lauren, answered the phone right away. "Tanya Wilson's office, Lauren speaking, how may I help you?"

"Hello, Lauren, this is Bella Swan. I was just returning Tanya's call from earlier."

"Hold one moment, please."

Bella was on hold for less than a minute when she heard Tanya's voice. "Hello, Bella. How are you doing today?"

"I'm fine, Tanya. How are you?"

"I'm doing great. I guess you've heard that Edward signed his contract this morning."

"Yeah, my mom called earlier to let me know. So, I guess I need to come to your office to sign my contract."

"Yes, let me just check my schedule. Do you have any plans tonight? If not, the next time I'll be able to see you is in about three weeks."

Bella held in a sigh and said, "Tonight is fine. What time were you thinking about?"

"Let's see ... my last appointment leaves at five o'clock. Do you think you could be here at five-thirty?"

Bella glanced at the time on her phone. It was almost three. "I can be there. I'll see you then."

"All right, I'll have everything ready for when you get here. Bye, Bella."

"Good-bye, Tanya."

Deciding to get her next phone call out of the way, Bella dialed Esme.

"Hello," a cheerful voice said.

"Hello, is this Esme?" Bella asked.

"Yes, it is. May I ask whose calling?"

"This is Bella Swan."

"Oh hello, dear," she replied, her voice sounding even more cheerful if that was possible. "I'm so glad you called. You got my message?"

"Yes, I did. Thank you for the lunch invitation."

"You're quite welcome. Do you know when you would like to get together or where you would like to eat?"

"I don't have any lunch plans tomorrow," Bella said. "I was thinking we could go to this new place that opened near the bakery. It's called Angelina's. The food there is very good."

"That sounds wonderful. I've driven by that place a couple of times, so I'm glad I'll be having a chance to try it with you. Let's meet there tomorrow at one."

"Okay, I'll see you then, Esme. Have a good rest of the day."

"You, too, Bella. Tomorrow will be fun. We have so much to talk about. Bye."

"Bye," Bella said, ending her call. She headed back to the kitchen to see Rose talking on the phone, pacing around the room.

"What's going on?" Bella asked Alice.

"I don't know. Jessica is upset because Bree called her a name or something. I try not to get involved in their drama, but _someone_," she said, raising her voice and looking at Rosalie, "can't seem to help herself."

Rose paused briefly in her pacing to give Alice a dirty look.

"Do you think someone could give me a ride home? I'm meeting Tanya later to sign the contract, so I need to shower and change. I didn't pack anything nice enough to wear over there."

"I'll give you a ride," Alice said.

Hearing this, Rose interjected, "Alice, when you drop Bella off, will you stop by the bakery?"

"Seriously, Rose? I don't want to go over there."

"Alice, I need you to just stop by. I think I've calmed Jessica down, but it would be better if you could just check on her. I would go, but Emmett is on his way back with Grace, and I know she's going to be hopped up on sugar. Please," Rosalie begged.

"It's not fair, using Gracie against me. I need to have a kid soon, to cancel yours out. But whatever, I'll go. Let's go, Bella."

Alice drove Bella over to their mother's house grumbling the entire time. When Bella got out of the car, Alice told her she would give her a call later to see how she was doing.

Bella showered and dressed quickly, afraid she would be late to meet Tanya. Luckily, her mother wasn't home, so she didn't have to worry about a confrontation with her.

Bella arrived at Tanya's office right on time and, like last time, it seemed that Tanya was watching for her to arrive.

"Come in, Bella. How are you doing today?" Tanya called.

"I'm good, Tanya. It's nice to see you again."

The ladies got down to business immediately. "I have the contract right here. Are you ready to go over it?"

"Sure," Bella said, her voice slightly trembling.

"Are you all right?" Tanya asked.

"I'm fine, just a little bit of nerves," Bella said, laughing.

"Okay. Well, this is the contract. Once you sign, you and Edward will be officially matched, and both of your names will be removed from the Matching database. Marriage isn't something that has to happen right away, but that is encouraged. Are there any questions that you have for me about the contract, Edward, or anything else?"

"No," Bella sighed. "I don't have any questions."

"Okay, Bella, I have to ask this last question. Do you know of any reason why you and Edward should not be matched?" Tanya asked nervously clicking her nails against the pen she was holding.

_Yes, he hates me._ Bella thought.

Bella shook her head. "No, I can't think of anything."

Tanya's face brightened. "Great, just sign where I have indicated and everything will be official."

Bella took her time signing the papers that bound her to Edward Cullen. Even though she took as long as she could, she still finished rather quickly.

"That's it, Bella. You and Edward are an official match. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Bella answered, forcing a smile on her face.

"So, what do you think of Edward now that you've met him?" she asked. This was the question Bella was hoping to avoid.

"We didn't really get to talk much last night, so I don't really know what to think yet."

"Well, I'm sure as you two spend more time together that will change."

"I'm sure you're right," Bella said quietly.

"Well, that's it. You and I are all done, Bella. I'm so glad I got the chance to meet you and get to know you."

"Thank you, Tanya. I'm glad I got the chance know you, too." It was true Bella really liked Tanya. She had tried hard to find someone for Bella, and it wasn't her fault that Edward felt the way he did about her.

The two ladies made their way to the office door together for the last time. This time, Tanya reached out for Bella to give her a hug. "I'll be expecting a wedding invitation soon," she said, laughing.

Bella couldn't speak, so she only nodded her head.

Bella made the drive back to her house in silence. She parked in the driveway and breathed a sigh of relief to see that her mother's car was still gone.

When she walked into her bedroom, she heard her cell phone beeping, signaling a new voicemail.

Bella assumed it was one of her sisters or maybe her mother on the phone. But she was wrong, very wrong. It was the very last person she expected to hear from.

It was Edward.

* * *

Hmm... I wonder what was wrong with Edward at that meeting and what does he want now?

I really can't wait to hear what you all think is going on.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks to Twilightzoner for being way too awesome for words and validating my story.

Thanks to xrxdainxrx for being a great beta and friend.

Thanks to everyone who is continuing to read this story. You can't imagine how much I smile when I see a new review in my inbox. This is a shorter chapter but there's a lot that goes on.

I just checked and still don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Five

Bella listened to the message with bated breath.

"_Um, hi, Isabella. This is Edward. Edward Cullen. I, um, got your number from my mother. I hope that's okay. I, uh, I was calling because we need to talk. So, if you could give me a call back I would appreciate it. My phone number is 555-5485. I'll talk to you later. So, bye."_

Bella listened to Edward's message three times before she deleted it. He sounded strange, nervous. She most definitely didn't want to talk to him. Instead she flopped down on her bed and stared at her ceiling. She felt a headache coming on.

She sighed and got up to change into comfortable pajamas. As she was about to head downstairs she heard her cell phone ring. She hesitated for a moment before heading back to get it. Glancing at the display screen, she saw it was Rosalie, so she answered.

"Hello."

"Hey, Bells," Emmett said.

Bella couldn't help but smile. Emmett's cheerful nature was infectious. "Hey, Em. What's up?"

"Nothing much. I was just wondering when I was going to get to see you? I can't believe you were here last night and you didn't want to see me."

Bella rolled her eyes. "I wasn't really in the mood for talking last night."

"Well, when are you getting here tonight?"

"I was actually planning to spend the night here."

"Seriously, Bella? That sucks. When Rosie told me you were staying here tonight, I got the Uno cards out. I want a rematch."

"I don't know why you always do this to yourself. You can't beat me," Bella laughed.

"You cheat!" Emmett exclaimed. "I just don't know how you do it. The real reason you're not coming over here is 'cause you're scared."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Oh Bells, Rose wants to talk to you. Hold on one second."

Bella waited while Rosalie picked up the phone and asked, "Hey, where are you?"

"I'm home. I'm trying to figure out what I want to eat for dinner."

"I thought you were going to be staying over here for a couple of days?"

"I know but I have to meet Esme Cullen tomorrow for lunch, and all my stuff is here and I want to look nice. It didn't make sense to stay there and then come back here to get ready and then drive out to the restaurant."

"I guess you're right." Rose sighed. "Gracie was looking forward to seeing you."

"Is she still up? Can I talk to her?"

"Yes, she's still up. I was just getting ready to give her a bath. Hold on."

"Hello," Gracie said in her sweet tiny voice.

"Hey, Miss Gracie," Bella answered.

"Auntie Bella! Where are you? My mommy told me you were staying at my house tonight."

"Well, I was going to stay with you tonight, but now I need to stay at my house."

"Oh," she said, her voice sounding deflated.

"But I promise, promise that you and I are going to have a fun day for just us two soon. How does that sound?"

"I like that," she exclaimed. "What are we going to do on the fun day?"

"It's a big surprise so I can't tell you. But it's going to be so much fun!"

"Yay!" she called. Bella could hear voices and the shuffling of the phone.

"What was that all about?" Rose asked.

"Oh, I told her to make up for not spending the night that she and I would have an extra special fun day."

"She really seemed to like that idea. She actually willingly went to go take her bath."

"Glad I could help."

"I guess I better go. If I let Emmett supervise bath time there's no telling what kind of mess I'll find when he's done. Sometimes I feel like I have two four years olds instead of one."

"You know you love him," Bella said.

"I know," Rose sighed. "Stop by the bakery after you meet with Esme. I'll want to hear all about it."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

"Good night."

Hanging up the phone, Bella went downstairs and fixed herself a quick dinner. After eating, she took a long shower and got ready for bed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day, Bella was very proud of herself for arriving to Angelina's on time. She took a deep breath before getting out of her car.

As she was making her way to the front door, she heard someone call her name. She looked over her shoulder to see Esme Cullen getting out of her car.

"Hi, Esme," Bella called.

"Hi, dear. How are you?"

"I'm well. How are you?"

"I'm starving. Are you ready to eat?" Esme asked rubbing her stomach.

Bella and Esme were seated and ordered quickly.

"So, Bella, tell me a little bit about yourself."

"What would you like to know?" Bella asked.

From what she could tell, Esme was a very nice woman, but she made Bella nervous.

"Oh, I don't know. Are you and your sisters close?"

"Yes. We're very close. I don't know what I would do without them."

"That's so sweet," Esme said. "I always wanted to give Edward a sibling, but that just wasn't in the cards."

Bella didn't know what to say to that so she just nodded her head.

"What about you and your mother? Are the two of you close?"

Bella began biting her bottom lip. She thought about lying, but then she realized Esme would see for herself soon enough what her relationship with her mother was like.

"Honestly, we're not all that close. I think I remind her too much of my father."

Esme nodded. "I got that feeling the other night.

The food arrived then and, for a moment, each woman busied herself with eating.

"I spoke with your mother the other night, and she is very excited to start planning the wedding," Esme casually stated.

Bella stared at her plate and took in a deep breath. "I'm sure she is. That's what she did with my sisters anyway."

"How do you feel about having the wedding so soon? Is that something you want?" she asked.

_I want to be with someone who actually wants to be with me_, Bella thought.

"I've always wanted to get married in the fall. So, if we don't want to wait until next fall, then I guess we should start planning now."

Esme smiled at Bella. She reached across the table and grabbed Bella's hand. "You know there is nothing wrong with waiting until next fall. No one wants you to feel pressured or think that you have to rush."

Bella was touched by Esme's words and concern. "Thank you. That means a lot, but I'm not sure everyone involved would agree with you. I don't have a problem with this fall."

Bella remembered how her mother acted when Alice and Jasper decided to wait to get married. She began behaving even worse when Jasper's parents wouldn't back her up in pestering the couple. Bella enjoyed thinking of ways to antagonize her mother, but she rarely acted on them. That was Alice's favorite past time. Bella didn't want to have to deal with what her mother would be like if they waited until next fall to have the wedding, so this fall would have to do.

Esme looked as if she was going to say something, but changed her mind.

"Where were you thinking of having the ceremony?"

The rest of Bella and Esme's conversation was centered on wedding related topics. When Bella invited Esme to come with Rose, Alice and Renee wedding dress shopping, Bella could tell how much it meant to her.

As they made their way to the parking lot, Esme asked, "Bella, did Edward give you a call last night?"

"Yes, he did. I haven't had a chance to call him back yet," she added.

Esme stopped walking and faced Bella. "I could sense some tension between you two the other night. But… he's such a wonderful young man, and I can tell that the two of you will be great together."

Bella nodded but didn't say anything. She didn't want to tell Esme, who seemed so nice, that she didn't think Edward was interested in her at all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After spending the rest of her day at the bakery telling her sisters all about her lunch with Esme, Bella made her way home.

She went to her room and closed the door. Part of her wanted to find a good book to read and get ready for bed, but she knew she needed to call Edward.

"Just get it over with," she told herself. "Maybe he won't even answer."

_Please, don't answer. Please, don't answer. Please, don't answer._ Bella thought to herself as the phone rang.

But of course, she wasn't that lucky. "Hello."

"Hi, Edward," Bella said. "This is Bella Swan."

"Hi, so, is it Bella? My mom has been calling you Bella."

"Bella is fine. So, what was is that you wanted to talk about?"

_And what have you and your mother been talking about? _

"Yeah, I was wondering if we could meet in person. This isn't the kind of talk I want to have over the phone."

_What the hell does that mean?_ Bella thought.

"Oh, okay. When did you want to get together?"

"I'm actually free now, unless it's too late."

"No, it's not too late." Bella glanced at the clock and saw it was barely seven. "Did you have any place in particular you wanted to get together?"

"I could just come to your house if that's all right?"

"No!" Bella almost shouted. Edward could not come to her house. Renee was home and she would not give them any privacy.

"Oh… okay," he sighed. "I guess we could meet somewhere else. Do _you_ have any ideas?"

Bella could tell that Edward was annoyed with her. She sighed. "There's this café called the Java Hut. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you there around seven-thirty."

"Okay, I'll see you there." Before she could say good-bye the line went dead.

Bella changed out of the blue sundress she wore to lunch with Esme and into a pair of blue jeans and a pink tank top. She told her mother she was meeting a friend for coffee and wisely didn't stick around for her to start questioning her.

She arrived at the café a couple of minutes late and found Edward waiting at a table inside.

He was slumped down in his chair with a baseball hat pulled down low over his eyes.

"Hi, sorry I'm late," Bella said, taking her seat.

Edward looked up at Bella and shrugged his shoulders. "Did you want something to drink?" he asked.

"No, thank you."

He nodded and rubbed a hand over his face. "First of all, I wanted to apologize for my behavior Monday night. I was rude to you and your family, and there was no excuse for it."

"I accept your apology, but it isn't really necessary."

"It is," he replied.

"And I have something to give you," he said, reaching into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out a little velvet box. He placed the box in front of Bella without another word.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

"It's your engagement ring." He sighed adjusting the hat on his head.

"Oh," Bella said looking down at the tiny box. This was not at all how she imagined this moment being. She honestly didn't expect a ring at all. But to get one in this way, to have it just placed in front of her, hurt.

"Aren't you going to open it?" Edward asked looking weary.

Bella couldn't look at him, so she opened the box and sucked in a breath. The ring was beautiful; an oval diamond was surrounded by small round diamonds, and round diamonds ran halfway around each shoulder in a white gold setting.

"It's really beautiful. Thank you, Edward."

"Yeah, you're welcome. My mom picked it out." He once again rubbed a hand over his face and seemed to be waiting for Bella to say something. "You can put it on you know," he grumbled. "She got it on short notice, so if it doesn't fit we'll have to send it away to be sized."

Bella sighed and placed the ring on her finger; it fit. Instead of being a symbol of their love and devotion, the ring felt like a weight. He hadn't even taken the time to pick it out himself.

"I wanted to talk to you about something else. I understand why your mother was monopolizing the conversation and why she wouldn't really let you say much to me."

"You do?" Bella asked.

_Well, of course he does,_ she thought. _His matchmaker would have told him that I was a Romantic. _

"Yeah and I get it. But there's nothing we can do about it now. We're stuck with each other, right?"

Bella felt like all the air had just been knocked out of her body. She couldn't believe he felt this way. She couldn't speak so she just nodded.

"I think the best thing to do is just go through with the marriage." He looked down at the table and began playing with the packets of sugar. "The contracts have been signed, and there's no way to get out of this without causing some embarrassment. You know what I mean?"

At this, Bella had to look down at the table. She swallowed thickly and managed to squeak out a "yeah."

"Well, I'm glad that's settled. I, uh, I guess I'm going to head out. My mom will probably be in touch with you soon. She's really excited about all the wedding planning."

Bella felt tears pool in her eyes. Her throat felt thick and heavy, and all she could do was nod.

"I'll see you around, Bella."

Bella sat with her head down until she heard him leave.

She stayed in her seat until she was sure he was gone. When she got in her car, she wasn't sure what to do. A big part of her wanted to drive to one of her sister's houses. But they would want to know what was wrong, and she didn't want to talk about it.

So, she sat in the front seat of her car and she cried. Big sobs racked her body as she hugged herself.

She, as Edward had put it, was stuck. But she guessed she should be grateful. Edward could have demanded to be released from his contract because Bella was a Romantic. Luckily for Bella, for whatever reason, he seemed to want to save her from that embarrassment.

She stayed there in the parking lot until her tears had subsided. She took a couple of deep breaths until she felt that she would be able to drive.

By the time she made it home, she knew what she had to do. Bella wasn't going to tell anyone about her conversation with Edward. Her sisters would just get mad and her mother would probably agree with him.

And as she lay in bed that night thinking about what he said to her at the coffee house, she knew there was nothing she could do. So, she would plan a wedding, she would marry him and they would move in together. She wouldn't like it and apparently neither would he.

Her situation was truly hopeless.

* * *

Okay I'm not sure what everyone is going to think of that. I wonder if anyone's thoughts on what is going on with Edward has changed?

If you want to see what the engagement ring looks like I've created a thread on Twilighted for Hopeless.

I'd love to know what you think of this chapter. And as always thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to Twilightzoner for being awesome and validating my story.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for being such a great beta.

A lot of people were very angry with Edward after the last chapter. And I don't blame anyone for feeling that way, he was a huge jerk. It will be interesting to see what everyone thinks about him after reading this.

* * *

Chapter Six

Yards of organza, satin, and lace were weighing Bella down.

"I never knew wedding dresses were so heavy," she told Heidi, the attendant at the bridal boutique she was currently being tortured at.

"Everyone always says that," Heidi laughed. "What do you think about this one?"

"The same thing I thought about the last four dresses I tried on." Bella sighed. "It's way too much." She was wearing a strapless ball gown that laced up the back. Heidi called it a pick up gown because of all the places the skirt was gathered.

"I guess I better at least show them," Bella said tilting her head toward the waiting room where her sisters, Renee and Esme were waiting.

Slowly making her way out to them so as not to trip, Bella wondered if she would ever find the dress she was looking for. This was the fourth, no fifth, time she had gone dress shopping. Every time was the same thing, dresses looked nice on her but she couldn't find the one that made her feel like a bride.

Part of her just wanted to pick a dress and get it over with. It wasn't like she was at all excited about the wedding.

But this was the only wedding she was ever going to have, and if she couldn't get excited about the groom, she was at least going to get excited about the dress. She was going to be beautiful damn it.

"That looks nice," Rose said, when Bella came into her view.

"I love it, Isabella," Renee crooned.

_Of course you do_, Bella thought. Renee loved anything Bella put on that was big and poufy.

"What do you think, Bella?" Esme asked.

"I don't really like it. I just think it's too much, and it's really heavy. I don't want to be in an uncomfortable dress all day."

Renee huffed. "You haven't liked anything you've tried on. Why don't we just get that first one from today? The one you said was kind of all right."

"Because she doesn't want to look kind of all right," Alice interjected. "It's her wedding day, and she wants to feel beautiful."

"Come with me, Bella," Heidi called. "Let's see if we can find you something else."

Heidi helped Bella back into changing room and out of the huge gown she had on. She sat down on a chair in the corner of the room and put her head in her hands.

"Maybe my mom is right. Maybe I should just get the first dress."

"Well, what do you like about that dress?" Heidi asked.

Bella thought about it for a moment before she responded. "I guess I like it because it was a little simpler than anything else I've worn. It's more elegant and timeless and a lot less busy."

Heidi nodded her head for a moment before gathering some of the gowns Bella no longer wanted in her arms.

"I'm going to take these back and see if I can find something more along the lines of what you're thinking."

"Okay," Bella replied, slinking down in her chair.

She remained like that for several minutes thinking about what could be checked off her to do list for the wedding.

The bakery was taking care of all the catering. Bella and Edward had decided on an evening wedding with a dessert reception. They both figured the less food they served the less time everyone would want to hang around.

Her sisters were going to be her only bridesmaids. She felt bad about not being able to include Angela, but Edward only wanted two groomsmen: his father and his friend Peter.

The bridesmaid dresses were very simple floor-length black gowns. Renee didn't really care for them because they were so simple, but Bella didn't care. They were practical and elegant, something either of her sisters could wear again.

Bella had also recently found Gracie's flower girl dress. When she showed her niece the picture of the dress she would be wearing, Grace squealed and demanded to keep the picture with her so she could look at it whenever she wanted to.

A knock on the door alerted her to Heidi's return. "Okay, I think I have some here you're really going to like."

When Bella looked at herself in the mirror in the first dress Heidi showed her, she knew. This was the dress she wanted to get married in. It was beautiful, elegant, and timeless.

"Wow," she breathed, as she studied herself.

The gown had a sweetheart neckline and a hand-embroidered beaded bodice that showed off her slim waist. The floor length skirt of the gown was light and flowing chiffon.

"Would you like to show your family?" Heidi asked.

"Uh huh," was all Bella could mange as a giggling Heidi lead her to her waiting family.

"Oh my God, Bella," Alice screeched. "You're a princess!"

"You look prefect, Bella," Rose said, smiling.

"Isabella, I didn't think I would like you in so simple a dress, but you look very pretty. I like it," Renee added.

"Thanks, Mom." Bella couldn't believe her mother liked this dress. She was all set to defend it and make it known that she would either wear this dress or nothing at all.

"Bella, you look wonderful. I can't believe how lucky my son is to be marrying such a beautiful young woman," Esme told Bella as she dabbed at her eyes.

"Thank you, Esme," Bella said. She knew that Esme meant well, but she was sure Edward wouldn't describe himself as lucky.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well, what do you think of this one?" Edward asked.

Bella and Edward were currently looking for an apartment to move into after the wedding. This was the second apartment they looked at, and Bella really wanted to move here. Alice and Jasper lived two buildings away from this one. Bella thought it would be nice to be so close to her sister, especially since her relationship with Edward was nonexistent.

"I like this one," Bella replied, looking around the master bedroom. "What do you think?"

"It's nice. But there's only one bathroom."

"Oh," Bella sighed. She was going to be really upset if the fact that there was only one bathroom was going to keep her from living here. "Does sharing bother you?"

"No, it doesn't bother me," he said, shaking his head. "I just didn't know how you felt."

Bella nodded and went to look in the closet. She was happy to see it was a walk-in. She couldn't imagine all her clothes and Edward's fitting in anything smaller.

"I'm just glad it has two bedrooms," Edward called from the doorway of the bedroom.

"What?" Bella asked, sticking her head out the closet door.

"Well, I'm glad this is a two bedroom apartment. I didn't want to have to sleep on the couch," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Why would you have to sleep on the couch?" Bella asked puzzled.

"Well, I wouldn't want you think I expected anything of you in that way. When we move in, I'll move my stuff in here, you know so our families don't ask a lot of questions. But I'll really be staying in the guest bedroom, and I'll just get my stuff as I need it."

Bella's brow furrowed momentarily as she thought about what Edward was saying. At first she was insulted. It didn't matter to Bella one way or another if they were sharing a room. She wasn't going to be having sex with him.

But the more she thought about it, the more she realized he was probably trying to be nice, even if he worded it in a strange way. She sighed and nodded. She didn't want to have to share a room with someone who couldn't stand her either.

"Oh, okay. I guess, I just assumed you would be staying in here."

"Oh, I thought that would make you uncomfortable," he said, running a hand through his hair.

Bella shrugged. "I really hadn't thought about it." Edward's brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to say something just as Bella started speaking. "But now that you've brought it up I guess it makes more sense to do things that way."

Edward looked down and nodded. "Um, I'm going to look at the kitchen again," he called, as he made his way out of the room.

After another good look around the apartment Edward and Bella agreed to go ahead and sign the lease. Once all the paperwork was signed and a date for them to begin moving in was set, they made their way to Edward's car.

"So, where do you want me to drop you off?" he asked.

"Um, I have the day off but I don't feel like going home. So, could you just take me to the bakery?"

Edward nodded and started up the car. They drove in silence for a moment before Edward began speaking. "Why don't you want to go home?"

"Oh, I just don't feel like dealing with my mother right now."

Edward looked as if he was going to say something else but changed his mind and the rest of the short drive to the bakery was silent.

"Thanks for the ride," Bella said, as she opened the car door.

"You're welcome. I guess I'll call you later, to talk about moving."

"Okay, bye Edward."

"Bye," he called.

Bella watched as Edward pulled out of the parking lot of the bakery and sighed. She wished more than anything that she could figure him out. Shaking her head she made her way inside to tell Alice that they would soon be neighbors.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

About a month before the wedding, Bella met with Angela and Jacob. She hadn't seen much of either of them since they were matched.

Jacob had just returned from his honeymoon to Hawaii with Carlie, and Angela and Ben had just celebrated their two month wedding anniversary.

"So, how's married life treating you?" Bella asked Jacob as she looked over the menu for the diner they were eating at.

"Good," Jacob said. "She's really great. What about you, Ang? You've been married for two months now. How's it going?"

"Things are good; it can be a little stressful with both of us working so much."

"How do you like working for the newspaper?" Bella asked.

"I like it. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about working in the entertainment section, but it's fun. But what I really want to hear about is Edward. I can't believe we haven't met him yet," she said, quickly changing the subject.

Bella quickly moved her menu to hide her face so her friends couldn't see her grimace at the mention of Edward's name.

"He's been really busy lately. We just found an apartment and so we've both been trying to pack and plan the wedding at the same time."

"Still, I hate to think the first time we'll meet him is after you two are married."

Bella sighed. Both of her friends had been dying to meet Edward for a couple of months now, but Bella kept putting it off. It was getting harder and harder to come with excuses for why he couldn't meet them. "I know and I'm sorry, but we honestly don't see very much of each other." She put her menu down to look at her friends, who seemed to be having a silent conversation.

"That must be hard. Ben and I were both busy when we first got together, but we still spent as much time together as possible," Angela said with a far off look in her eyes.

"You guys are some of the lucky ones, I guess," Bella mumbled. "Edward and I didn't fall in love at first sight. Not everyone gets matched with their soul mate. Some people don't have to spend every waking moment with each other."

"Bells, are you okay?" Jacob asked, his brow furrowed.

Bella took a deep breath. "Yeah, no, I don't know. Edward and I just haven't hit it off like you and Carlie, or Ang and Ben.

"I mean, I know that not everyone falls in love right away, and I know some couples never really fall in love, but that hardly ever happens, right?

"It takes time to get to know each other, like with Jasper and Alice. It took months before Alice could even say she liked Jasper. I just don't want to be the kind of couple that's together because they don't have a choice. And I-"

Angela took Bella's hand and squeezed. "Stop, Bella. That's not going to happen to you. Who cares if you two haven't hit it off right away? Just give it some time. Like you said, Jasper and Alice didn't get along at first and look at them now. It's going to be fine."

Bella looked at her two best friends and nodded her head. She loved them both dearly, but she knew they didn't understand. There was no way they could. They had both found love through the Matching--they felt the system worked.

But Bella knew differently. Her match was what the Matching was all about, a relationship that would last. It didn't really matter if Edward and Bella were happy in their relationship. Happiness wasn't how successful matches were measured. Successful matches were ones that lasted. A majority of people were happy; some of them felt an instant connection like Rosalie and Emmett, and others of them had to work at it like Jasper and Alice.

No, Bella's marriage wasn't going to be about true love or passion. She didn't get butterflies in her stomach when she looked at Edward and maybe she never would.

What she would have is stability, and maybe one day she and Edward would find a way to get along. Maybe he wouldn't always treat their relationship like it was a business arrangement he wanted no part of. Maybe one day, they would grow to love and respect each other.

_Maybe_, Bella thought bitterly to herself, _I should have just let Tanya match me with Michael. _

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sitting in the middle of her bed, Bella suddenly realized something; one week was all the time she had left to be Bella Swan.

In one week she would officially be Bella Cullen.

In one week she would leave the house she had lived in her whole life and move into the apartment. Most of the things Bella was taking with her to the apartment had already been moved. One of the things that remained was her wedding dress. Now that she had picked it up from being altered, Bella couldn't help but to stare at it sometimes.

It was definitely her favorite part of the whole wedding.

Since she was feeling down, Bella decided to watch a movie. She was digging through her pile of DVDs when her phone rang.

"Great," she groaned to no one in particular. "Just the person I want to talk to."

"Hey Edward," she sighed into the phone.

"Hi, Bella. I'm not calling too late am I?"

When Bella looked at the clock and saw it was only eight-thirty, she rolled her eyes. "No, it's not too late. What's up?"

"Well, I was going to head over to the apartment tomorrow morning, and I was wondering if you needed to go back over there before the wedding?"

Bella sat with her lips pursed and slowly counted to five. She and Edward had already had this conversation; she didn't need to go back to the apartment until after the wedding. The less time she spent over there the better.

"Hello? Bella? Are you there?" Edward called.

"I'm here, sorry. I thought I told you I didn't need to go back to the apartment until after the wedding."

"Oh yeah, that's right. I guess I sort of forgot."

"Oh, okay…" Bella answered after a long awkward silence. "Was there anything else you needed?" She could hear the irritation slipping its way into her voice.

"Well, yeah, I just wanted to know if you um," he began, followed by a long stretch of silence.

"Edward?" Bella called, wondering if he was still on the line.

"Never mind, it's nothing just… Just nothing. Good night, Bella."

"Good night," Bella said before the line went dead.

She stared at the phone a moment before deciding to forego the movie and take a bubble bath instead. She soaked in the raspberry scented water and wondered what Edward really wanted when he called. She knew that he wasn't calling to ask her about going to the apartment in the morning. From what she could tell he wasn't forgetful.

She pondered over the phone call for a couple of moments longer before deciding to stop. She had only a few more nights of freedom, and she wasn't going to spend them thinking about Edward Cullen.

* * *

Okay, so I definitely want to know if anyone feels any differently about Edward now or if you all still think he's huge jerk.

I'll post a picture of Bella's wedding dress on the forum later. It's really pretty.

http://twilighted(dot)net/forum/viewtopic(dot)php?f=44&t=9158

Come by and say hello.

Once again thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to Twilightzoner for being awesome and validating my story.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for betaing this weeks and weeks ago and for being a great friend.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read, review and add the story to their favorites.

I still don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Seven

Bella stood underneath the warm spray of the shower for much longer than necessary. She let the water rush over her head and down her back. She felt calm and relaxed until she heard a knock on the door.

"Bella, it's time to get out of the shower. You've been in there for almost an hour. Caius is on his way up," Rose called through the door.

Bella groaned. "I'll be out in a minute." Reluctantly she turned off the water and got out of the shower. She dried herself off and lotioned her body with her favorite scent before slipping into a bathrobe.

"Is he here yet?" she asked Rose as she made her way into the hotel suite they were staying in.

"No, he's not here yet. Put your undies on before he gets here. That way you can just get dressed when he leaves."

Bella quickly put her wedding underwear on and slipped back into her robe. "Where are Alice and Mom?"

"They went downstairs to collect Grace from Emmett," Rose said, bringing Gracie's dress out of the closet. "How are you feeling after your shower?"

"The same," Bella answered. "I'm shaky and nervous."

"Don't worry--the ceremony will be over before you know it and then the fun starts."

Bella didn't respond; she was sure no part of this day was going to be fun.

"I'm coming," Rose called when there was a knock on the door. "Come in everybody."

Alice, Renee, Grace and Caius all paraded into the suite. Bella held in her groan as Caius and his assistant Marcus made their way over to her.

"Well, look at you!" Caius exclaimed, examining Bella closely. "I haven't had my hands on this pretty face in months. You can't imagine how upset I was that you didn't want me to doll you up when you first met with your young man."

Bella held her arms out to Gracie who came to give her a big hug. "It was kind of short notice."

"Wait a minute," Caius called, blow dryer in hand. "Is someone wearing something berry scented? Raspberry maybe?"

"I used raspberry body wash and lotion today," Bella told him while she held Grace in her lap.

He moved closer to Bella and took a large sniff. "You smell delicious. Good enough to eat."

Alice let out a giggle, and Bella narrowed her eyes in her direction.

"I was thinking of doing the mother of the bride's hair first, while Marcus works on the two lovely bridesmaids, then I'll work on the flower girl and we'll both work on the bride. How does that sound to everyone?"

"That's fine with me," Renee replied.

For the next few hours, Bella, her niece, her sisters, and her mother were made up for the wedding.

Caius and Marcus left so the ladies could get dressed. They promised to meet them downstairs where pictures were being taken so they could touch up their hair and makeup.

Bella had just gotten in her dress when there was a knock on the door.

"Hi everyone," Esme called as she breezed into the suite. "I just had to come see Bella before the ceremony."

Bella smiled at Esme as she took a look at her.

"You make a truly beautiful bride. I just can't get over how perfect that dress looks on you. And they did an excellent job on your hair. No veil was definitely the way to go."

Her hair was swept off her face and secured in the back with a crystal hair clip. The hair that hung free was loosely curled.

"Thank you, Esme."

"Well I have to get back to my son. He would kill me if he knew I told you this but you're so much calmer than he is. He keeps mumbling to himself about how- oops," she said, placing her hand over her mouth. "He really would kill me if I told you that. I really have to go, but I'll see you soon."

Everyone said their good-byes to Esme and gathered their bouquets.

Bella's was a mix of her favorite flowers, calla lilies, dahlias, roses and orchids. The lilies were a burnt orange and the rest of the flowers were a deep red. Her sisters were carrying red roses, and Grace would scatter red rose petals down the aisle.

"Do we have everything we need?" Renee asked.

"I think so," Alice said, taking a quick look around the room. "Let's head on down."

Bella posed for so many pictures that afternoon her head spun. There were pictures with both of her sisters, pictures with one of her sisters, pictures with her mother, pictures with Grace and many, many more.

While Alice and Rose were taking pictures, Bella called Grace over to her. "Miss Gracie, did I tell you how pretty you looked today?"

Grace giggled and shook her head.

"Well, you have to be the prettiest little girl I have ever seen."

"Thank you," she whispered. "You're really pretty, too."

"Thank you," Bella said.

"I think I've gotten all the photos I need for now," the photographer called.

"Good, we're already behind schedule," Rose sighed. "Let's get our makeup touched up. The ceremony was supposed to start five minutes ago."

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity as makeup and hair was fixed. And the next thing Bella knew she was watching Grace skip down the aisle.

Bella stood by herself, waiting for her cue to walk down the aisle. It was times like these when she really missed her father. He should be standing by her side right now whispering words of encouragement.

When the first notes of the wedding march started, Bella took a deep breath and walked through the archway that had hidden her from the view of her wedding guests.

She walked slowly, concentrating on not tripping. She felt exposed and out in the open with the eyes of over a hundred guests on her. Looking up to the end of the aisle, Rose caught her eye. She mouthed, "Smile," at Bella and she realized she had been frowning. Putting a smile on her face, Bella finished the seemingly never ending walk.

She handed her bouquet to Alice and took Edward's hand. She wondered if he could feel how much her hands were shaking. According to his mother, he was just as nervous as she was. He looked calm enough now.

Bella realized soon she was going to actually have to participate in the ceremony, so she tried to pay attention.

"You, Edward, and you, Isabella, having come to me signifying your desire to be formally united in marriage, and being assured that no legal, moral, or religious barriers hinder this proper union, please give heed to the questions now asked you.

"Edward, in taking the woman whom you hold by the right hand to be your lawful and wedded wife, do you promise to love and cherish her, to honor and sustain her, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, and to be true to her in all things until death alone shall part you?"

"Do you so promise?"

"I do," Edward replied, looking deeply into Bella's eyes.

_Guess I picked a good time to start paying attention,_ Bella thought.

"Isabella, in taking the man whom you hold by the right hand to be your lawful and wedded husband, do you promise to love and cherish him, to honor and sustain him, in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, and to be true to him in all things until death alone shall part you?"

"Do you so promise?"

Bella looked into Edward's eyes. He looked different today. Gone from his eyes was the indifference she had grown used to. In its place was something else-something she was sure she was misreading. Was it sadness?

"Isabella?" the minister whispered, gaining Bella's attention.

She felt a blush heat her face after being caught daydreaming. "I do," she whispered.

The rings were exchanged and moments later the minister instructed Edward to kiss his bride.

As Edward looked at Bella, something flashed on his face for a moment before it vanished. He slowly leaned his face toward Bella and gently touched his lips to hers.

Just as Bella was about to close her eyes he pulled away.

Bella was actually disappointed that he pulled away when he did. She didn't have much to compare it to, but that kiss with Edward was nice.

Bella felt Edward lightly tug on her arm to indicate it was time to walk back down the aisle. They linked arms and she followed him.

Once they were out of the room the ceremony had taken place in, Edward turned to Bella. "Are you all right?" he asked.

Bella nodded her head. "I'm fine, thank you."

There wasn't much more time for conversation after that.

Since the wedding had started late, everything was off schedule. The hotel event planners shuffled the wedding party around from the receiving line, to taking pictures and finally to the reception.

The wedding party was introduced, and Edward and Bella made their way onto the dance floor for their first dance.

Bella, being naturally clumsy, wasn't a good dancer. When Edward pulled her into his arms she whispered to him, "I apologize in advance if I step on your feet."

"Don't worry, it's all in the leading," he whispered back. And he was right; she didn't step on his toes once while they danced.

Once the dance was over, Edward shared a dance with his mother. It was really bittersweet to see them whispering back and forth to each other as he whirled her around the floor. This was yet another moment Bella wished she was able to share with her father.

People came up to Edward and Bella all night to wish them well. Tanya was there with her husband William; she asked Bella to call her after the honeymoon and looked extremely disappointed when Bella told her they weren't having one.

One of the strangest occurrences of the night came when a couple approached them that Bella didn't recognize. Edward obviously did and spoke quietly with them for a moment before introducing them to Bella as Mr. and Mrs. Smithson. Mrs. Smithson was crying softly as she told Bella how beautiful she looked. Bella thanked them and they left to take their seats. Bella wanted to ask Edward who they were, but he looked so sad after they left that she decided against it.

Angela, Ben, Jacob and Carlie made their way over sometime after the cake had been cut. Bella finally introduced her best friends to Edward. There was some general small talk and plans were made for the couples to get together soon.

Just as Bella was about to go get another piece of cake, Jasper grabbed her from behind and planted a big kiss on her cheek.

"Come dance with me," he begged, dragging Bella out to the dance floor.

"But I'm so hungry," Bella whined.

"That's your own fault for only serving dessert. I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Fine, but just one dance-then I'm finding something to eat."

Jasper twirled Bella around the dance floor barely wincing when she stepped on his toes.

"So, how does it feel to be an old married lady?" he asked smiling.

Bella rolled her eyes. "Seeing as how I've barely been married for five hours, I don't think that's a question I can truthfully answer."

"Okay, try this one on for size. Are you happy?"

"Right now? Yeah, I'm happy. I'm dancing with my very handsome brother-in-law."

"You know what I mean. Are you happy with him? Do you think you will be?"

"I don't know," Bella whispered. "I hope I will be."

"Jasper, where is Emmett?" Bella turned her head to see her sister glaring suspiciously at Jasper.

"What?" Jasper asked eyes wide.

"You heard me? Where is he?"

"I don't know, Rose. Honest. I've been dancing with the bride."

Turning her attention to Bella she asked, "Do you know where Edward is?"

Bella looked at the wedding party table where she had last seen Edward. He wasn't there.

"He was over there the last time I saw him," Bella answered, pointing.

"You know I would expect this out of him. But I'm surprised at you, Jasper," Rose told him, jabbing him in the chest with her finger.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Bella asked, looking in between her sister and brother-in-law.

"Emmett is off somewhere threatening Edward. He sent Jasper to distract you and bribed my daughter with a puppy if she would pretend to be sick long enough for him to sneak away."

"No," Bella gasped. "He didn't really do all that."

"He most certainly did," Rose huffed. "And when I find him, whatever he's told Edward is going to be a picnic compared to what I'm going to do to him."

"What are you guys talking about?" Alice asked, putting her arms around Jasper.

"I'm planning a homicide," Rose said, scanning the reception hall.

"I don't even want to know," Alice sighed. "Bella, Mom is looking for you. She said she had something she wanted to tell you."

"Where is she?" Bella groaned.

"I left her over there," Alice said gesturing to the other side of the room.

Bella made her way slowly over to her mother. She was stopped numerous times by different people that had only congratulated her once or twice all night.

"Hi, Mom," Bella sighed as she sat down beside her mother.

"Isabella, are you having a good time?"

"Yeah, I'm having fun," Bella replied. It wasn't a complete lie. She was very entertained a moment ago by Rosalie plotting her husband's demise.

"This is a conversation I wanted to have with you a while ago but things just got so busy."

Bella nodded but wasn't really paying close attention to her mother. She could see that Rose had just spotted Emmett and was making her way over to him.

"Isabella, please pay attention," Renee called, pulling Bella's attention away from Rosalie who was poking Emmett repeatedly in the chest.

"Sorry."

"Do you have any questions you wanted to ask me?"

Bella was confused, and the look on her face must have shown that confusion because Renee continued.

"You know any questions about… tonight."

Bella understood that loud and clear. "No, no, no. Definitely not! No, no."

"Are you sure? It's okay to be nervous."

"I'm sure. I promise." Between her sisters and Jacob, there was nothing Bella needed to know on the subject of sex.

"Because you know the first time can hurt-"

"Mom," Bella exclaimed. "Seriously, this is not a talk we need to be having."

"Oh, I just assumed you were a-"

"I am, but we don't need to talk about this."

It was then that a horrible thought occurred to Bella, _Oh, God I'm going to die a virgin._

"Mom, thank you for the talk, it means a lot really. But I'm kind of hungry, and I wanted to get another piece of cake."

Bella was sort of surprised at how sweet Renee was being. She guessed that since all three of her girls were married she was going to mellow out some.

"Well, if you had served dinner like I suggested, you wouldn't be so hungry right now."

_Ah, there she is,_ Bella thought, smiling to herself.

Finally, Bella got herself another piece of cake and sat down to eat it.

Just as she finished, Rosalie and a shamed Emmett came to stand in front of her.

"Go on," Rose said tapping her foot.

"I'm sorry, Bella," Emmett sighed.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I'm sorry for trying to intimidate Edward."

"And?" Rose asked, slightly raising her voice.

"And," Emmett sighed. "I'm sorry for involving my four year old daughter who doesn't know any better."

Bella felt a laugh bubbling up in her chest, but one look at her sister told her it wasn't the time. "I accept your apology, Emmett."

"Come on, let's go apologize to Alice," Rose called as she turned to walk away.

Bella danced with a few more people and snuck another piece of cake, and then the reception was over.

Bubbles were blown as she and Edward quickly made their way into his car and out of the brisk October air to drive off to another hotel across town.

A bellhop helped them get their bags out of the car and into the hotel. They checked in and went up to the suite on the tenth floor.

When the bellboy said, "Have a good night Mr. and Mrs. Cullen," it really hit Bella that they were married.

Edward set Bella's bag in the bedroom of the suite and ran a hand through his hair.

"So, I'm going to sleep on the couch in the other room," he said. "And I didn't get a chance to tell you earlier but you looked really nice tonight."

"Thank you, Edward."

"You're welcome, Bella. Good night," he sighed heavily.

He left the room and closed the door behind him. Bella stared at the closed door for a moment before changing out of her wedding dress.

Her sisters had packed her sexy lingerie to wear tonight and she had secretly packed comfy pajama bottoms and a tank top. She changed into her comfortable clothes and turned off the light. She got under the covers and stared at the ceiling.

She was married. She was Bella Swan no more; she would be Bella Cullen for the rest of her life.

She thought about the talk Renee had tried to have with her earlier and she started to giggle.

Then she thought about Emmett threatening Edward and how he probably said something along the lines of, "If you ever lay a hand on Bella I'll kill you."

_You don't have anything to worry about there, Emmett_, she thought.

Her giggles soon turned into loud laughs, and Bella had to bury her face in her pillows to stifle the sound. Soon she was able to calm herself down and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

This chapter kind of starts the beginning of the end. There are three more chapters after this one. The next chapter is the one I think everyone has been waiting for. Edward will finally reveal what's been going on with him.

I'll post pictures of the bridesmaids dress, the flower girl dress and Bella's bouquet on the thread at Twilighted.

The link is my my profile.

Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx for betaing this chapter long ago.

Thanks to charmie for all her help.

Thanks to milehighhopes for her great words of encouragement and for agreeing to be another beta for me.

Ok, so I want to apologize that the wait was so long for this chapter. But school kicked my butt in the last half of the semester and I'm just now starting to feel like a human being again.

I promise that I won't take this long to update another chapter. But I can't promise that updates will come once a week like they were before.

Anyway, this chapter has been a long time coming and I hope you enjoy it.

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Eight

Bella wanted to go home and soon. She was feeling the beginnings of a headache and her extra strength medicine was waiting for her in her medicine cabinet. But her plans for a speedy exit were dashed when her niece began to speak.

"Daddy, what are we having for dessert?"

"Well, I cooked dinner so Mommy is in charge of dessert," Emmett replied, standing up from the dining room table.

"Emmett, why didn't you tell me you wanted me to fix a dessert?" Rose huffed.

"I just assumed you would, I mean I fixed dinner. And how hard would it have been to bring something home from the bakery?"

"It wouldn't have been hard at all if you had just told me to do it," Rose exclaimed.

"Hey, why don't we just go pick up some ice cream?" Bella interjected. Dinner at her sister's house had been tense. When Rose asked Bella if she and Edward wanted to have dinner at her house with Alice and Jasper, Bella didn't think she was being invited to watch her sister and her husband bicker all evening.

"Yeah," Alice replied. "We'll go get ice cream while the boys clean up."

"Do you want to go with us to get some ice cream, Gracie?" Bella asked.

"No, I want to show Uncle Edward something in my room. Come on, Uncle Edward."

Bella and Edward had been married for two months now and every time Grace saw Edward all she wanted to do was spend time with him. Bella thought her niece might have developed a little crush.

"All right, we'll be right back," Rose called, as she and her sisters made their way out the door.

Bella and Alice exchanged a worried glance as they saw their sister stomp her way to Bella's car while muttering things under her breath.

"You're going to have to drive Bella," Rose said. "You're blocking me in."

"Okay," Bella answered.

As she dug around in her purse for her keys Alice leaned over to her and whispered, "What's wrong with Rose?"

Bella glanced up to make sure Rose wasn't within hearing distance before replying. "I don't know. She's been snapping at everyone all night."

"What's taking so long?" Rose yelled hands on her hips.

"Coming," Bella called.

The car ride to the grocery store was tense and quiet, except for Rose's occasional sigh of frustration.

Bella wanted to know what was wrong with her sister and possibly offer her some advice or at least be there to listen. But she was afraid that if she asked her what was wrong, Rose would then turn her frustration on Bella.

When Rose sighed for what Bella guessed was the five hundredth time, she convinced herself to say something but before she could Alice spoke up. "That's it, I can't take it anymore. What's wrong with you, Rosalie? And I swear if you say nothing, I'm going to climb into the backseat and kick your ass!"

Bella eyes grew wide and she peeked at Rose in the rearview mirror. Alice and Rose really used to go at it when they were younger and Bella had never been able to break it up. If they started fighting now Bella had no hope of stopping it. She found a parking space at the grocery store and waited quietly for Rose to say or do something.

"Emmett and I have been fighting. A lot," she finally said.

"What about?" Bella asked.

"Whether or not to have more kids, he wants a couple more but I'm not sure."

"Why not? You love Gracie and you're a great mother," Alice said, turning around in her seat to look at her sister.

"I just like things they way they are now, but Emmett doesn't want Grace to grow up as an only child. He hated being an only child growing up."

"That's what Jasper says too," Alice replied.

The car grew silent and when Bella looked up both of her sisters were looking at her. She could tell they were waiting for her to contribute to the conversation. "Oh, yeah, Edward hated it too." Bella had no idea what Edward thought about being an only child, or what he thought about any number of things, but she knew this wasn't the time to bring up her crappy marriage.

"He has a point, Rose. Think about what it would have been like if we didn't have each other after Dad died."

"That's what he said too and that's when we started to fight. I know he has a point but I just hate that he brought up Dad to make it. It's not like I told him to go get a vasectomy. I didn't even say no, all I said was that I wasn't sure."

"I'll just say this," Bella began. "If I didn't have you and Alice after Dad died, I don't know what would have happened to me. You guys are my best friends."

Rose sighed and nodded. "I feel the same way about you two. I told Emmett I would keep thinking about it but I think he wants an answer soon."

"It's getting late," Rose said after a moment of silence. "Let's get some ice cream and head back."

After dessert was finished Edward and Bella decided to call it a night. The drive back to their apartment was a quiet one. They said their good nights and headed off to their separate rooms.

Bella fell asleep that night thinking about her sister. She knew that Rose and Emmett would work things out because they loved each other. And she hoped that one day she would be lucky enough to feel that kind of love for herself.

It was really early and Bella wasn't in a good mood. She was never in a good mood this early. In her opinion it was unnatural to get up before noon, so being up before seven was disgusting.

To make matters worse she was on her way to the bakery, which meant she was going to have to deal with Alice--happy, giggling, humming, skipping, Alice. She had been worse than normal lately since she and Jasper had moved out of their apartment and into a new house.

Bella groaned as she pulled her hair back into a knot and trudged into the kitchen.

She looked over towards Edward's room and noticed his light was still off, meaning he was still asleep.

"Jerk," she whispered to herself.

Since they had been married, she had always been up before him. He wasn't working, and Bella wasn't really sure what it was that he did all day.

She yawned and poured a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice. While she was eating, her phone rang. She let it go to voicemail when she saw it was Alice. Anything she wanted this early in the morning couldn't be good. When Bella finished eating, she washed and put away her dishes and headed out of the apartment.

She took the long way to the bakery wanting to prolong her torture as long as possible.

When she arrived at the bakery, both of her sisters were already there, as usual.

"Good morning, Button!" Alice called as Bella walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah," Bella mumbled as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"So, Bella, do you and the hubby have any fun plans tonight?"

"No," Bella grumbled, taking a long sip of her coffee.

"Good," Alice squealed. "We're having a sleepover at my house tonight, just you, me, and Rose. Jasper is going out of town for some kind of workshop, so I'll have the house all to myself. How does that sound?"

A sleepover with her sisters actually did sound like a lot of fun. She smiled for the first time that morning and said, "That sounds great."

The rest of the day went by quickly. Bella tried to call Edward several times throughout the day to tell him not to expect her home that evening, but she kept getting his voicemail. She finally left him a message telling him she was staying at Alice's and that she would see him tomorrow.

When Bella and her sisters got to Alice's house, they ordered a pizza and found a cheesy movie to watch on TV.

They laughed and joked most of the night. It felt good to be able to spend this time with her sisters. The three of them hadn't spent much quality time alone together outside of the bakery after the wedding.

Bella had been waiting for a time to talk to her sisters about the state of her marriage. Even though she didn't want to ruin the good mood of the evening, she couldn't think of when she would have a better opportunity and this was something she desperately needed to talk to her sisters about.

"Guys, there's something I want to talk to you about," Bella said quietly.

"What is it, Bella?" Rose asked.

"It's about Edward and me."

Bella proceeded to tell her sisters everything. She started at the beginning with the phone call and meeting at the coffee shop. She told them about how Edward slept in the guest room. She told them that the only significant amount of time they had spent with each other after the wedding was when they spent time with their families. Bella told them she didn't know what to do.

By the time she had told them everything, her head was in Rose's lap and she felt exhausted.

Neither of her sisters said anything for a long while. Rose stroked through Bella's hair and Alice chewed on her fingernails.

"Well, say something!" Bella demanded.

"Okay," Rose sighed. "What have you tried to do to work through your problem?"

"What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"I mean, what are you doing to change the situation?"

"Nothing, I've been giving it time like everyone said I should."

"Well, honey, that's not working. So, maybe it's time to try something else."

"Okay and that's what I'm asking. What should I do? What should I try?"

"Ask him out," Alice replied.

"Like on a date?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, I mean ask him if he wants to go out to eat or something or to the movies. Do something fun, just the two of you."

"I don't think that will work," Bella sighed.

Rose momentarily stopped running her hands through Bella's hair. "How will you know unless you try?"

"But I don't-" Bella began.

"Look, Button, it doesn't have to be today, it doesn't have to be tomorrow, hell it doesn't even have to be this week, but you have to try something else. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life like this?"

Bella thought about it. No, she didn't want to spend the rest of her life like this. She knew Alice had a point, but in the back of her mind the thought that Edward hated her still lingered.

She decided to think about it and told her sisters so. It wasn't like this idea had an expiration date. "And when you're around him, try to be yourself," Alice added.

"What do you mean try to be myself?" Bella was confused. If she wasn't herself around Edward then who was she?

Rose sighed. "I've noticed it too, Bella. Whenever you're around Edward you sort of clam up. You hardly say anything. It's like you disappear into yourself whenever he's around."

Bella thought about it, and she could see where her sisters were coming from. When she was around Edward, she did tend to get quiet, but so did he.

"I'll think about that, too," Bella said.

The sisters sat around quietly talking for a while after that before deciding to go to bed early.

It had been three and a half weeks since Bella and her sister's sleepover and nothing had changed with Edward. That was largely due to the fact that Bella hadn't taken any of her sisters' suggestions. But like she told herself before, she had plenty of time to work out what to say to him.

"Aunt Bella," Grace called. "Will you read me a story?"

Emmett and Rose were on a date so Bella had volunteered to babysit. "I sure will. What would you like to read tonight?"

Grace dug around in the bag she brought with her to Edward and Bella's apartment and presented Bella with a book.

"Oh, this is one of my favorites," Bella told her niece as she took _Love You Forever _out of her hands.

Bella and Grace settled down on the couch and Bella began reading. She loved spending time with her niece. Reading to her was one of Bella's favorite things to do. Gracie was always such an attentive audience.

When the story was finished, Bella had no problems reading it to her all over again. When the second read through was done, Bella felt a pair of eyes watching her. She looked up to see Edward standing in the doorway.

"Hi," she said.

Edward raked a hand through his hair and Bella noticed he seemed nervous. "Hey, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting."

Bella shook her head. "No, we were just reading."

"Hey, Uncle Edward," Grace called. She jumped off the couch and ran to give Edward a hug.

When she arrived at Edward and Bella's that night, the first thing she wanted to know was where he was. She actually pouted when she found out he wasn't home.

Edward picked Grace up and spun her around in a circle, while Gracie giggled. When he stopped spinning, Grace whispered something in his ear. Edward glanced at Bella before smiling at Grace and nodding.

Bella didn't know what their little exchange was all about, but watching her niece interacting with Edward tugged on Bella's heartstrings, a lot.

"Can we watch a movie now, Aunt Bella?" Grace asked.

"Sure," Bella said.

"Come on, Uncle Edward," Grace said, tugging on Edward's arm. "Please watch the movie with us."

Edward looked to Bella to see if that was all right, and Bella smiled at him, so he joined the girls on the couch. Not long into the movie, Grace climbed into Bella's lap and fell asleep. Edward and Bella sat in silence and watched the rest of _Finding Nemo_ while Grace slept.

When it was over, Edward got up to turn the movie off, but instead of leaving the room like Bella expected him to, he came and sat back down on the couch.

It was quiet for a moment before Edward spoke. "Did you, um, have a nice day today?"

"It was okay," Bella whispered, shifting Grace around in her lap. "What about you?"

"It was fine. I'm still looking for the perfect place for the restaurant."

Bella nodded her head. She had no idea he had started working on the restaurant.

They were quiet for a moment longer while Bella shifted around again.

"Do you want me to take her?" Edward asked quietly.

Bella shook her head. "It's okay. I've got her. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold her like this. She's getting so big."

Bella smoothed Gracie's blond curls back from her face and glanced over at Edward. He was watching her closely and looked away quickly when he noticed Bella watching him.

For some reason, at that moment, Bella could hear Alice's voice loud and clear, "Ask him out."

Bella swallowed and felt her heartbeat quicken. She was miserable, and it would make her life so much easier if she and Edward were at least getting along. She thought about the many times she had caught him staring at her and wondered what it meant.

But then the negative little voice in the back of her head reminded her of the Edward she first met a few months earlier. Was it possible that his opinion of her had changed that dramatically, especially when you considered the fact that neither of them had spent much time together?

_Look, the worst that can happen is that he says no,_ Bella told herself. _Just do it and you'll know, once and for all. _She took a few deep breaths and glanced over at Edward.

"Edward," she called quietly.

"Yeah," he responded.

"I was, um, wondering if maybe… if you'd maybe like to go out with me sometime." As soon as the words were out of Bella's mouth, she wished she could take them back.

Edward's eyes got big and his mouth dropped open.

_Oh, crap. Now I've scared him,_ Bella scolded herself.

"Yeah," Edward gasped. He cleared his throat and continued. "I mean, I would really like that, Bella."

"Oh, okay," Bella breathed.

They sat quietly watching television until Emmett and Rosalie arrived to collect their daughter.

When Rose and Emmett left, Bella and Edward said their good nights and went to their rooms.

As Bella got ready for bed that night, she couldn't believe it. Alice was right. She was going on a date with Edward.

* * *

I know you're probably upset that you didn't find out what's going on with Edward in this chapter but there is a reason for that.

If you found out why Edward acts the way he does in this chapter then that would have meant the story was almost over. But since I have decided to extend the story you're going to have to wait to see what his deal is. And I think a majority of you ladies would rather have a longer story and wait for the big reveal than to have it all end now.

The next chapter will be the first date. And things will start to pick up for these two from there.

Stop by the forum and tell me what you think. I'll more than likely be posting teasers as we get closer to the next chapter since the wait will be longer.

Thanks for reading! And thanks for all your patience.


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie and milehighhopes for the beta work.

Well I got this to you guys faster than last time. I know the waiting sucks but life has still been very busy. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it's the first all new stuff I've written in months.

* * *

In quiet moments, Bella enjoyed observing other people and thinking over the day's events. She was the type of person who didn't feel the need to fill every moment with unneeded chatter, unlike her sister Alice. Growing up with her mother and sisters meant quiet moments were hard to come by, so when one presented itself to Bella she cherished it.

Now, on her first date with Edward, when silence was awkward instead of golden, she had nothing to say.

On their way to the restaurant they made polite conversation about how their days had gone and plans they had that weekend at Edward's parent's house. After those topics were exhausted, Bella couldn't think of anything to say, and apparently neither could Edward.

When Edward excused himself from the table to use the restroom Bella tried to rack her brain for something they could talk about. She couldn't come up with anything.

As she sat there vetoing several conversation topics her phone chimed, signaling a new text message. She thought she had set her phone to silent and quickly did. She didn't want her phone going off in the middle of dinner to interrupt their conversation. Bella sighed and rolled her eyes at herself when she realized they had to have an actual conversation before one could be interrupted.

She got her phone back out to read her new text message and hoped against hope that whatever the message contained gave her something to talk to Edward about other than the weather.

The message was from Alice and Bella couldn't help but laugh when she read it.

_B and J are driving me crazy! I don't know how much more I can take. Please tell me you'll help me hide the bodies? Love you and have fun on your date! _

"What's so funny?" Edward asked as he sat back down at the table.

Bella didn't hear Edward return to the table over the sounds of the restaurant and the sounds of her own laughter. When she processed the fact that he asked her a question, a response of "nothing" was almost out of her mouth before she stopped herself. Bella knew she needed to make an effort- that's what this date was all about.

"Oh," she said smiling. "Alice is planning a homicide and wants help hiding the bodies."

"What?" Edward sputtered almost choking on his drink.

"Sorry." Bella tried not to laugh as Edward began to clean himself up.

"Sorry for what? For making me choke or for laughing at me?"

"Both I guess," Bella responded, laughing again. Edward rolled his eyes and pointed at Bella, "You're still laughing."

"I know. I'm done now."

"So, why is your sister planning a murder, and why are you agreeing to be an accessory?"

"Well, do you remember Bree and Jessica? They work part-time at the bakery." When Edward nodded Bella continued. "Jessica and Bree are both in the final stages of The Preparation and they're getting dresses and stuff ready for The Sorting. A couple of days ago Jessica was talking about this dress she was buying for The Sorting Ball. Today Bree came in with pictures of her dress and when Jessica saw them all hell broke loose. It was the same dress Jessica bought and she and Bree got in another huge fight."

"Another huge fight?"

"Yeah, they fight all the time."

"Really? If they fight so much why don't you let one of them go?"

"I wish we could, but it would be too complicated. Bree is Emmett's cousin and Jessica is Renee's goddaughter. So, we're stuck with both of them."

Bella and Edward's food arrived then and their conversation was briefly halted while they both ate quietly for a moment.

"So, did you have any dress drama when you did The Preparation?" Edward asked after he and Bella had eaten some of their dinner.

"No, not at all. Renee wouldn't have allowed us to wear anything that someone else might. All of our dresses were custom made."

"Really? Is that normal? I mean is that something a lot of people do?"

"No. Renee always told us how lucky we were to be able to afford custom-made things. I mean, when I think about it now I guess she was right. There were three girls at my Sorting Ball that had the same dress on. One of them cried most of the night because she was so embarrassed."

"Did you enjoy The Preparation?"

Edward's question caught Bella off guard for a moment. At first she thought about lying about her true feelings but decided that there was no harm in being honest.

"I really enjoyed the classes I had with Jacob. But other than that I didn't really care for it. What I really wanted to do was go to college."

"Why would you want to go to college before getting matched?"

"I guess because I thought it would be fun to make my own choices for four years. It sucked having someone decide almost everything for me for four years."

"Is going to college now something you want to do?" Edward asked looking concerned.

"No, it was pretty much something I wanted to do to get out of The Preparation. Now that it's all over, I don't really see the point. I'm happy at the bakery, and I don't need a degree to work there."

"You never thought about just going to college instead of doing The Preparation."

Bella chuckled and raised an eyebrow at Edward. "You've met my mother, right? Can you imagine what happened when I brought up that idea?"

Edward laughed and shook his head. "I have no idea what I was thinking."

*o*o*

At the end of the next day at work Bella helped Alice clean up after a birthday party, while Rose talked to Bree about her behavior at work.

Alice was yammering on about something that Bella wasn't really paying attention to. Bella had been quiet for most of the day. She had hoped to spend some time alone, but it seemed like every time she got a second to herself someone needed her for something.

She knew that Alice wanted all the details about her date with Edward. Bella didn't want to have to answer the exact same questions later when Rosalie asked, so she was ignoring Alice's obvious attempts to get her to talk.

While nodding and saying the occasional uh-huh, Bella began to think about what she was going to bring to dinner at Edward's parent's house the next day. She told Esme when they talked earlier in the week that she would bring a dessert to dinner. Bella couldn't decide what to bring, and she also couldn't figure out whether or not to make the dessert herself or bring something from the bakery. There was a new chocolate cake recipe she wanted to try, but she wasn't sure if Edward's parents liked chocolate. She would have to call him later to ask him and then pick up whatever ingredients she needed that night before going home.

When Bella finally remembered that she did have powdered sugar at home, she heard Alice sob.

"Alice, what's wrong?" Bella asked, feeling horrible for not paying more attention to her sister.

Alice mumbled something Bella couldn't understand and sobbed again.

"Alice, honey I can't understand you," Bella told her sister as she moved to stand closer to her.

Alice sniffed several times before saying in a very clear, sob free voice, "I said I don't like being ignored." Alice faced Bella, and she could see for the first time that her sister hadn't been crying at all.

"Alice, what is your problem? I thought something was seriously wrong with you," Bella exclaimed.

"You weren't paying any attention to me. You should have heard some of the crazy stuff I was saying. I just told you a long story about how I thought Jasper was having an affair with Mrs. Cope our sixty-five year old neighbor, and your only response was, uh-huh."

"Whatever, Alice, maybe I don't feel like talking right now."

"Oh, so I guess the date didn't go so hot. I'm sorry, Button, but don't give up. You guys will figure it out."

"I didn't say it was a bad date. I just said I didn't want to talk about it right now."

"Why not?" Alice whined. "It was my idea for you to ask him out; I'm dying here. Please tell me."

"I just know that once I tell you I'll just have to tell Rose, so I'm going to wait to tell you both at the same time," Bella replied leaving the room to take out the trash.

When she came back in she almost ran into a scowling Bree. "Your sisters are waiting for you in the office," she said as she made her way out of the store.

"Well, good night to you too," Bella said as she made her way to the office where her sisters were waiting for her.

"What crawled up Bree's butt?" she asked by way of greeting upon entering the office.

"She'll be fine." Rose sighed. "I told her if she keeps antagonizing Jessica we'll have to let her go. Then she said she didn't really buy the same dress as Jessica and that she was just trying to be funny. So, I told her that was the problem she knew what she was doing was wrong and wanted to do it to upset Jessica. But enough about her, Alice said you have something to tell us."

Bella rolled her eyes at Alice and sat down.

"You said you wanted to tell us both at the same time. So go ahead."

"What do you want to know?" Bella asked realizing as she often did that she was outnumbered and wouldn't be leaving until her sisters got the information they wanted.

"How was it? Did you guys have fun?"

Bella sighed because, of course, Alice would be the one to begin the questioning. She really couldn't help herself. "It was nice. We had fun."

"Nice. It was just nice," Alice asked skeptically giving Rosalie a look of disbelief.

"Well, what did you expect, Alice? That I would come in here skipping, humming and madly in love?"

"No, I didn't think that but I hoped you would think it was better than just nice."

"Alice, leave her alone. She thought he hated her only a little while ago. It's going to take some time for them to get to know each other," Rose interjected.

"Exactly, Alice, and you should understand better than anyone. I seem to remember you crying for months about how you had been matched with the worst guy on the planet. It took time for you and Jasper to fall in love."

"You're right, I guess. I'm just excited for you, Bella. I want you and Edward to be happy. You both deserve it."

"Thank you, Alice. I know you mean well, but you have to give it time."

"I'll try, but you know it's hard for me to not want details."

"I know," Bella sighed. "But please just try to control yourself."

*o*o*

That night, as soon as Bella walked in the front door her phone rang, and when she saw it was her mother she sighed. To say she wasn't in the mood to deal with her mother was putting it lightly. However, Bella had been ignoring her calls for a couple of days and she knew from experience if she ignored them much longer her mother would be making an unexpected and unannounced visit to the apartment.

"Hi Mom," Bella said when she answered the phone.

"Isabella, there you are. I was getting worried about you. Is something wrong with your phone? I've been trying to get in touch with you for a couple of days."

"No, I don't think anything has been wrong with my phone. I've been keeping it on vibrate at work, and I sometimes forget to change it back when I leave." Bella hoped that her mother would just accept her lie and not question her further.

"Oh, all right—that makes sense. Well, how have you been doing?"

"I'm fine Mom. How are you?" Bella asked as she threw herself down on the couch. She knew this conversation with her mother was going to be a long one, so she thought she might as well get comfortable now.

"I'm okay. Isabella did you speak with Mary Alice today?"

"Of course, I did Mom. It's hard not to when we work at the same place."

"Don't get smart with me, young lady," Renee exclaimed. "I was only wondering because Mary Alice and I got into fight and she won't return my calls."

"Well, I'm sorry you two aren't getting along right now, but Alice didn't say anything to me."

"That doesn't surprise me. She was probably embarrassed."

"Why would she be embarrassed, Mom?" As soon as Bella asked the question she regretted it. She did not want to get dragged into her mother and Alice's argument. Past experience had taught her that nothing good would come of her involvement.

"I just told Alice that your Aunt Lucy called to tell me that your cousin Felix and his wife are expecting again."

"And?" Bella knew that there had to be more to the story for Alice and Renee to have gotten into a fight.

"And I asked her when she and Jasper were planning on having some children."

"Mom, that's none of your business. They'll have kids when they're ready."

"Really and when will that be? Felix was matched after Alice and he has two children already with another one on the way."

"I don't understand what the big rush is. They've been married for a little over a year. Give them some time. Besides, you and Dad waited like three years before you had Rosalie right?"

"That was different. Your father and I weren't-" Renee began before stopping herself and clearing her throat. "I'm not getting any younger, Isabella. I want to be able to see my grandchildren grow up."

"Mom, you're 53. I'm pretty sure you're going to be around to see your grandchildren grow up."

"You say that now, but at this rate I'll have to wait for you and Edward to have a baby before I have another grandchild, and who knows how many years that might take."

"I'm sure you won't have to wait as long as you think, Mom," Bella said wishing this conversation would wrap up quickly.

"Oh, Isabella, really?" Renee responded.

"Yeah, Mom really."

"Okay darling. Well, I'll talk to you later on. I'll give you a call later to check on you."

"Mom, you don't have to do that. I'm-"

"No arguments. I'll speak to you soon. Bye."

"Bye, Mom," Bella said as she hung up the phone. "She is so weird," Bella stated for no one in particular to hear.

"Who's weird?" Edward asked walking into the living room.

"Aahh! You scared the crap out of me," Bella yelled.

"Sorry, I thought you heard me come in," Edward said as he did a bad job of hiding his laughter from Bella.

Bella rolled her eyes, and Edward came to sit beside her in the living room. "So who's weird?" he asked again.

"My mom; we just had a strange conversation. Speaking of parents do yours like chocolate?"

"Yeah, of course they do. Who doesn't like chocolate?"

"Renee can't stand chocolate. Her sister was allergic to it, so she never got to eat it growing up, and now that she can she doesn't want to."

"Why did you want to know if my parents like chocolate?"

"I told your Mom I would bring dessert to their house tomorrow night, and I wanted to bake a chocolate cake. I didn't want to make one if no one was going to eat it."

"When were you going to bake it?"

"Tomorrow before we head over there. I'm going to leave work early so I can get it done."

"Oh, okay. Do you mind if I help?"

Bella wasn't expecting him to ask to help. Normally she enjoyed baking by herself, but she knew this was probably Edward's way of making an effort and she thought it was kind of sweet. "Sure you can help."

*o*o*

The next day Edward and Bella made their way over to his parents' house. Bella was actually looking forward to dinner with her in-laws for the first time. Normally, when she and Edward went to his parent's house, they had to pretend not only to be happy but that they actually liked each other. On this trip, however, Bella didn't feel like she was going to have to pretend. She definitely wasn't in love with Edward, but she did find herself enjoying his company. If nothing romantic ever developed between them at least Bella felt they could be friends.

When they knocked on the door, Esme answered with tears in her eyes.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Edward asked.

"Oh nothing, these are happy tears. Give me a hug," she said grabbing Edward and holding on tight.

"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked again once she released him looking concerned.

"I told you I'm fine, Edward," she replied before turning her attention to Bella. "Oh Bella, you look beautiful. I need a hug from you too."

While Bella gave Esme a hug Carlisle came into the room. "Esme, I thought you weren't going to say anything."

"I haven't said anything Carlisle," she said pulling away from Bella. "Have I said anything, kids?"

"No and that's the problem," Edward said. "What is going on?"

"Why don't we all go have a seat and we can talk."

Carlisle led them into the living room and everyone had a seat. "All right, we're sitting, Mom—what is going on? Are you sure you're okay."

"I'm fine, Edward. I promise. It's just that I said I wouldn't say anything."

"Say anything about what?" Bella asked.

"Oh, I can't take it. We know!" Esme exclaimed looking back and forth between Edward and Bella.

"Know what, Mom?" Edward asked looking at Bella who shrugged her shoulders.

"That Bella's pregnant," she announced bouncing slightly in her seat.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think.

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	10. Chapter 10

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie, and milehighhopes for the beta work.

I know you don't want to hear my excuses so I'll just apologize for the delay once again.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read and review. It means more than I can say that you've stuck with me this far!

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Ten

Bella's first instinct was to laugh because Esme had to be joking. There was no way that Bella could be pregnant. Bella knew, however, that Esme had no way of knowing that she and Edward hadn't consummated their relationship so it was entirely possible that Esme did think Bella was expecting.

What Bella couldn't figure out was why Esme thought she was pregnant in the first place. Bella glanced down at her stomach to see if maybe she looked like she had put on some weight. She had been snacking more often at the bakery and thought this might be her cue to cut that out. As she glanced at her belly, trying to see whatever it was Esme saw, she remembered that her mother in-law was crying before Edward and Bella arrived at the house.

Unable to figure out why Esme thought she was pregnant, Bella glanced at Edward. She no longer felt the urge to laugh when she looked at him. He was watching his mother with a look of confusion on his face. When he felt Bella gazing at him he turned his attention to her and his expression changed from one of confusion to one of despair. "Are you pregnant?" he whispered to Bella, his brow furrowed.

"No! Edward, of course not," Bella whispered back.

Even though his face relaxed slightly, the sadness didn't completely leave his eyes. Bella knew what he must have been thinking, and she knew she would have to talk to him later when they were alone to be sure he believed her.

"Wait a second, did you just say you weren't pregnant, Bella?" Esme asked.

"Yes, I did. I'm not pregnant Esme."

"See," Carlisle said. "I told you if the kids had that kind of news they would tell us."

"Are you sure?" Esme asked, with a look of longing on her face.

"I'm sure, Esme," Bella answered.

"Mom, why did you think Bella was pregnant?" Edward asked.

"Well, I spoke with Renee this morning, and she was convinced that Bella was pregnant. I thought that maybe you two were waiting to tell us in person tonight."

Bella had no idea why her mother would have thought she was pregnant. It had been a couple of weeks since they had seen each other, so it couldn't have anything to do with Bella's weight. Then Bella remembered the phone conversation she had with her mother and groaned. "Esme, I'm so sorry, but my mother is crazy. She's been pestering Alice about having a baby, talking about how she won't be around to see her grandchildren grow up if she doesn't have one soon. All I said to her was I was sure she wouldn't have to wait as long as she thought to be a grandmother again. She hears what she wants to hear."

Esme smiled sadly at Bella. "It's all right, dear. I understand. I guess I just got a little carried away."

"That's exactly what I said. Hopefully, next time my wife will listen to me and wait to hear from you two before getting excited."

"Shut up, Carlisle," Esme grumbled. Carlisle laughed and placed a kiss on his wife's cheek.

Esme suggested they start dinner, and everyone made their way to the dining room. Bella was worried that the dinner conversation would be uncomfortable after the misunderstanding at the beginning of the evening. Thanks to the relationship between Edward and his parents, that wasn't a problem.

Something Bella noticed when spending time with Edward and his parents was how well they all got along. Edward was actually friends with his mother and father. After growing up in her home, where she was always at odds with her mother and she didn't have many memories of her father, it was extremely refreshing to see Edward joke around with his dad or watch as he tried to stop his mom from telling embarrassing stories from his childhood. It was all very sweet and made Bella wish she had grown up with parents like his.

"I almost forgot, I have a bone to pick with the two of you," Esme said suddenly after dinner was finished.

"What now?" Edward groaned.

"Why haven't we been given any wedding pictures?

Bella had been dodging questions regarding wedding pictures for a couple of weeks now. The truth was that the proofs arrived a while ago, but neither she nor Edward had made a move to look through them.

"Uh, we haven't exactly picked which ones to order yet," Edward began. "We've both been busy and…"

"Well, get un-busy, young man. It's been three months, and I have no pictures of my only child's wedding."

"Who's ready for dessert?" Bella asked. She didn't want Esme to get upset with Edward about the pictures; it was as much her fault as it was his that they didn't have any pictures to give her.

"I'll help you with the cake," Edward offered, standing up from the table.

"No, have a seat. I can help, Bella," Esme said.

"Mom, I can help. I don't mind."

"Well, I do," Esme said giving Edward a look that had him sitting back down in his chair right away.

Bella and Esme made their way into the kitchen and put the dirty dinner dishes in the sink. "Esme, which plates did you want to use for dessert?" Bella asked.

"I'll get them in a minute. But first I wanted to talk to you alone, Bella."

"Oh, okay," Bella replied.

"I wanted to apologize again. I know I should have waited to hear from you and Edward instead of jumping to conclusions."

"Esme, you really don't have to apologize. I should have known better than to say something like that to my mother. I know how she is."

"I think I told you before that we wanted to have more children but weren't able to." When Bella nodded Esme continued. "I love Edward more than anything in the world, but I always wanted to have a daughter. So when Edward found out that he had been matched with you, after he gave up hope that he would ever be matched, I thought maybe this was my chance to have the daughter I always wanted. And you're just wonderful, Bella. I can't imagine anyone better suited for my son. To hear from your mother that the two of you were going to be parents was one of the best pieces of news I could have ever gotten."

"Oh, Esme…"

"No, let me finish," Esme said patting Bella on the hand. "I just wanted you to know why I was jumping to conclusions before even hearing from you if it was true or not. I know that I need to be patient and wait for the two of you to enjoy being married for a while before you start having children. Just know that seeing the two of you together warms my heart."

"Esme, that's really sweet of you to say," Bella began when Edward walked into the kitchen.

"Is everything all right in here?" he asked.

"Everything's fine, dear. Just some girl talk," she said grabbing some plates and leaving the kitchen.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked Bella once they were alone.

"I'm fine. Are you all right?"

"I'm good."

"Can we talk for a minute?" It was extremely important to Bella that Edward knew she hadn't and would never cheat on him.

"Sure," he said walking further into the kitchen.

"I wanted to apologize for my mother. I don't know why she thought it was a good idea to tell Esme I was pregnant… I'm so sorry Edward."

"You don't have to apologize for your mother, Bella. You don't have any control over her actions."

Bella nodded and sighed. "I also wanted to make sure you knew there was no way I could be pregnant. We're married, and I would never cheat on you."

"I have to admit that's what I thought for a split second. I know we haven't always gotten along, but even the thought of you being with someone else almost killed me," he said shaking his head. "After the shock wore off, I knew you didn't and wouldn't cheat. And I want you to know I would never do that either, Bella. You mean…"

"Hey," Carlisle called sticking his head in the kitchen. "I think I was promised some cake."

"We're coming, Dad," Edward said sighing.

As he and Bella made their way back into the dining room, Bella couldn't help going over her conversation with Edward. Especially the part where he said her being with someone else would have killed him. She bit her lip to stop herself smiling like an idiot at seemingly nothing while eating her piece of cake.

*o*o*

The next day when Bella got home she knew she had to call Renee. When she arrived at work that day, both of her sisters wanted to know what Bella's big news was. Apparently, Renee had called Alice and Rose to tell them to prepare themselves to hear some big news from their sister. When Bella explained what the big news was supposed to be, Alice had an uncontrollable fit of laughter until Bella explained to her why she and Renee were having a conversation about babies in the first place.

Confronting her mother wasn't going to be fun, but Bella knew she needed to get it done before her whole family knew of her "good news."

"Isabella, darling, how are you?" Renee asked when she answered the phone.

"Mom, we need to talk."

"Sure, honey. I've been waiting for this call, so you go right ahead," Renee replied brightly.

Bella groaned and rolled her eyes. "You need to stop telling people that I'm pregnant or that you think I'm pregnant or that I have big news to share with them. Do you understand?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Isabella. I know it's your news to share not mine. I won't say another word."

"That's the thing, Mom. There isn't any news to share. I'm not pregnant, and I don't understand how anything I said to you would make you think that I was."

"But you said…"

"I know what I said," Bella interrupted sharply. She was tired of letting her mother do things like this. Renee knew Bella was the daughter least likely to confront her for her bad behavior, but Bella wasn't going to take it anymore. "The first thing you need to do is call Esme and apologize for getting her hopes up. You can't imagine how horrible I felt having to tell her you were mistaken."

"Isabella, I do apologize," Renee began softly. "I thought that maybe you were waiting to tell me officially in some cute way. Like how your sister bought me a world's best grandma T-shirt."

"I'm not Rose, Mom. If I were pregnant I would just come out and tell you. You know that." There was silence on the other end of the line and Bella would have thought her mother had hung up on her except that Bella could hear her mother sniffling.

"I'm very sorry, Isabella. I'll call everyone I told and tell them that I wrong and apologize."

"Who did you tell besides Esme, Rose and Alice?"

"Just your Aunt Lucy, but she promised not to say anything until she heard from you herself."

"Okay," Bella said. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was getting close to the time that Edward normally got home. "I need to go, Mom. Please don't forget to call everyone and explain what happened."

"I won't forget, Isabella. I am very sorry."

"I know you are, but I really have to go."

"All right, have a good night."

"Good night," Bella replied.

As soon as Bella hung up the phone with her mother she called Edward to see how close to home he was.

"Hey Bella," Edward said when answering his phone.

"Hey, I was just wondering where you were?"

"I'm about twenty minutes away from home," he replied. "But you know, Bella, if you miss me you can just say it. You don't have to pretend to wonder where I am."

"Ha ha," Bella said, rolling her eyes. "I just wanted to know if you felt like picking up a pizza on your way home. I thought we could eat and look over the wedding proofs."

"Sure, I can do that. I'll see you when I get home."

"Okay, bye," she said hanging up the phone. Bella couldn't help but smile to herself as she called the local pizza place to put in her order. She was feeling down about the conversation with her mother before she talked to Edward. However, a short conversation with him had not only helped put her mother out of her mind, it put a smile on her face.

When Edward got home they took their food into the living room, and after Bella told Edward about her conversation with her mother they started looking through the pictures.

"Ugh," Bella sighed, flipping through the pictures. "I don't like any of these."

Edward looked at the pictures she was talking about. "What's wrong with them?"

Bella knew exactly what was wrong with the pictures. She looked miserable. She was smiling in all of the pictures, but the smile most definitely didn't reach her eyes.

She put the stack in her hand to the side and grabbed a different set of pictures. Scanning through them, she paused as she came across one of her and Gracie. It was a candid shot, taken when Bella was telling her niece how pretty she looked before the ceremony started. She didn't look miserable in this shot. Her eyes were bright, and she was smiling cheerfully at Grace who was giggling softly.

Edward looked over Bella's shoulder at the picture. "That's a good one."

"Yeah," Bella sighed. "Grace looks so pretty."

"Well, I would tell you the same thing, but pretty doesn't do you justice."

Bella felt her face heat and glanced at Edward. "Thanks," she murmured.

After they figured out which pictures they wanted to order they found something to watch on TV and spent the rest of the night talking.

*o*o*

Bella was surprised to receive a phone call from her mother the next day telling her that she had kept her promise and apologized to everyone. Bella thanked her mother and got off the phone with her quickly; even though Bella could tell that Renee seemed genuinely sorry for what she had done Bella wasn't quite ready to forgive her.

Bella received another surprise when she got a phone call from her Aunt Lucy. Bella and her sisters didn't get to see much of their aunt or her children when they were growing up because Lucy was matched with a man who lived in Virginia. Bella always wished that her aunt lived closer. Lucy was a great source of comfort when Bella needed her. "So, I hear I'm not going to be a Great Aunt after all," she said after she and Bella had been talking for a few minutes.

"Yeah, Mom got a little too excited."

"Yes, well you know you're mother. She loves you girls so much and just wants you to be happy."

Bella scoffed and rolled her eyes at her aunt's statement. "I don't think she told everyone I was pregnant because she's worried about my happiness. She did it because she wanted to be the one to tell everyone I was having a baby."

"Isabella Marie, I know you don't really believe that. Your mother may be a lot of things, but she loves you and your sisters more than anything."

"She has a funny way of showing it," Bella grumbled.

"Look, I'm not going to argue with you about your mother. The only other thing I will say about her is this, if you hadn't been so young when your grandmother passed away then you would probably have a better understanding of why your mother is the way she is.

"The real reason I called though was because the last time we talked you told me you would have some information about wedding pictures soon. So, where are they? What's going on with them?"

"You'll be glad to know you can stop harassing me. We ordered the pictures yesterday. They'll be here soon."

"That's good to hear." Lucy sighed. "I thought you might have pulled a Renee."

"What does 'pulled a Renee' mean?"

"Haven't you ever wondered why there aren't any pictures from your mother's wedding?"

Of course, Bella had wondered why there weren't any pictures around from her parents' wedding. She told her aunt it was something she asked her mother about several times when she was growing up. "Mom always said all the pictures were at Grandma's house and got destroyed when her basement flooded. Are you saying that's not what happened to them?"

"No, that's not what happened to them. I don't know if I should say anything though. If your mother didn't tell you the truth she obviously did it for a reason."

"Come on, Aunt Lucy you can tell me. What really happened?"

Lucy sighed and mumbled something under her breath. She was silent for a long while before she sighed again and began speaking. "Okay, I'll tell you but you cannot ever tell your Mom what I'm about to say."

"I promise I won't say anything."

"The reason there aren't any wedding pictures is because your mother destroyed all of them."

"What?" Bella exclaimed. "Why would she do that?"

"Renee was really excited about being matched with Charlie. She thought he was handsome and really sweet. But Charlie didn't exactly care for your mother right away. He thought she was spoiled, shrill and he couldn't stand your grandmother. A few days before the wedding Renee heard Charlie complaining to his parents about her. She tried her hardest to get out of the match after that but it was too late. They got married not long after that and she cried all day long. She didn't want anyone to see pictures of her like that so she burned all of them."

Bella couldn't believe what her aunt was telling her. She always thought her parents were happy together. She sat on the phone listening to her aunt try to assure her that once her parents got to know each other they did fall in love. Bella got off the phone quickly with her aunt after that and sat in shock in her living room until she heard Edward come in the front door.

Bella didn't feel ready to talk about the conversation with her Aunt Lucy. When he asked her what was wrong Bella gave him an excuse she had used many times growing up when she didn't want to talk about what was bothering her. "I was watching _My Girl_," she said.

"_My Girl_?"

"Yeah, I'm not supposed to watch that movie. It always makes me cry."

Bella could tell that Edward didn't really believe her but he didn't press her.

They fixed dinner together that night, and when they finished cleaning up Edward said something Bella wasn't expecting. "You know, if you ever want to talk about _My Girl_ or anything else that's bothering you, I'm here."

Bella smiled at Edward nodded. "I know, Edward. Thanks."

*o*o*

A little over a week later, when she got home from work, Edward told her he had a surprise for her. He took her into the living room to see that he had gotten the picture of Bella and Grace framed.

"I could see how much you liked this one," he began. "I thought it might be a nice one to keep. I got one framed for Grace, too. I'm sure Emmett and Rosalie would want to have a copy."

Without a moment of hesitation Bella threw her arms around Edward and pulled him into hug. "Thank you. This was really sweet," she breathed, before placing a kiss on his cheek.

Edward stumbled back some due to the force of the hug, but he caught himself and encircled his arms around Bella. "You're welcome," he laughed.

They stayed wrapped up in each other for a moment. Being in his arms pressed up against his chest felt good. She sighed when she felt Edward start to pull away.

He smiled at her, dragging a hand through his hair. "I'm glad you like the picture."

Bella nodded. "I really do. Rose is going to love it."

When Edward flashed another smile and walked out of the room, she felt butterflies in her stomach. The feeling was new but it didn't surprise her. Her feelings for Edward were changing every day from ones of friendship to something more… maybe love.

* * *

Well the next chapter is the one you've all been waiting for. I'm not going to say anything about when it should be up because I'm going to have to obsess over it for a while before it's ready for you all to see.

Thanks again for reading. Please let me know what you think!


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie, and milehighhopes for the beta work.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read my story. It means so much to me to read reviews from people who've stuck around since the beginning. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Eleven

Bella was confused. Her feelings for Edward had changed dramatically over the past couple of weeks. She knew that she was falling in love with him, but she wasn't sure how Edward felt about her. They were affectionate with each other but it never went further than hand holding, hugs, or kisses on the cheek or forehead.

A big part of her was convinced that he thought of her only as a friend. She wished that she could read his mind or that she was brave enough to come right out and ask him what he was thinking and feeling. She knew that if Edward confirmed her suspicions that he only thought of her as a friend, she would be crushed.

So, for the time being, she was going to keep her feelings to herself. She just hoped that one day soon Edward would do or say something to make her think his feelings mirrored her own.

As they left the movies one night, Edward announced he wasn't ready to go home.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Bella asked.

"Let's go get some ice cream," Edward said, pointing to a Cold Stone Creamery across the street, his eyes bright.

"Isn't it a little cold for ice cream?" Bella asked.

Edward pouted and said, "Come on, Bella. Please?"

"I don't know," Bella teased. "It is still winter."

"Come on, baby. Pretty please," he begged.

Bella felt her stomach somersault. Did he realize that he had just called her baby? Since words seemed to fail her, Bella simply nodded.

Edward grinned at her and grabbed her arm to lead her to Cold Stone. When they got inside, Bella was still finding it difficult to speak. Edward didn't seem to notice as he scanned the menu.

"Bella, are you ready to order?" he asked.

Bella nodded. She went up to the counter and placed her order for a _Cookie Doughn't You Want Some_ while Edward got a _Berry Berry Berry Good_.

When their ice cream was ready, they sat down at a table and started to eat.

"That looks good," Edward said after a moment, looking at Bella's ice cream.

"Mmm," she hummed. "It really is."

"Can I have some?" Edward asked.

Bella tried not to laugh at him and failed. "Um… no."

"Why not? You can have some of mine."

"No, thank you," Bella said, wrinkling up her nose. She dug a big hunk of cookie dough out of her ice cream and popped it in her mouth. "I don't want any of yours. Who gets fruit in their ice cream, anyway? You wanted fruit, now you have to deal with it."

"Why won't you share?"

"Because I don't want to," Bella answered, eating more ice cream.

"I'm the only child. I'm supposed to be the one with sharing issues."

"Sorry, not going to happen," Bella said, sighing.

"Bella?" Edward questioned.

Bella looked up into his big green eyes.

"Baby, can I please try some of your ice cream?" he begged.

_There, he did it again. He definitely knows what he's doing,_ she thought.

Bella stared at him for a moment before she was able to collect herself. "You can't do that," she breathed.

"Do what?" Edward asked, taken aback.

"You can't keep calling me baby like that."

"Oh," Edward said, looking down at his forgotten ice cream.

"It's not fair," Bella whispered. "When you call me that I kind of want to give you whatever you want." She blushed furiously.

Edward looked up at Bella with a twinkle in his eye. "Good to know," he said, winking.

Bella rolled her eyes as Edward took a big spoonful of her ice cream.

As they walked back to the car, Bella couldn't wipe the smile off her face. On the drive back to their apartment, she thought about how far they had come. It was hard to believe that the man sitting next to her was the same one who hated her. She knew that he didn't feel that way anymore. Still, she wondered what it was about her that caused him to have the reaction he did when they first met.

As Edward parked the car, Bella made a decision. She had to know. "Edward, I was wondering if we could talk about something that's been bothering me."

"Sure," Edward said as he got out of the car.

"I'm just going to change first," Bella told Edward when they reached the apartment.

"Okay," Edward replied, looking worried.

Bella changed into a pair of old flannel pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. She went into the living room where Edward was waiting.

She sat on the couch and faced him. "I, uh, I don't know how to say this without just coming right out and asking you," Bella said, gnawing on her bottom lip.

"It's all right," Edward sighed. "You can just ask me."

"I just wanted to know what it was it about me that made you hate me so much when we first met."

Edward's brow furrowed, and he shook his head. "I didn't hate you when we first met."

"Edward, I was there. I think I remember the way you looked at me. I couldn't understand what it was that I had done to you."

"No, Bella, I was really looking forward to meeting you. But you were acting like you weren't interested in me and that's when I got upset."

Bella sat quietly for a moment, trying to recall specific details about her first meeting with Edward. "I was interested in you," Bella whispered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Edward raked a hand through his hair and sighed. "Okay, well can I ask you a question?"

Bella nodded.

"Why wouldn't your mom let you say anything to me? Why wouldn't you look at me or even talk to me? Why did you keep trying to scoot further away from me on the couch?"

Bella looked down at her lap, trying harder to remember that first meeting, her brow furrowed. She knew she wasn't acting like herself that night, but that was more about Renee's behavior.

"That didn't have anything to do with you. It was because of me. I couldn't look at you or talk to you because I was embarrassed."

"Exactly," Edward sighed, nodding his head. "You were embarrassed of me."

"No, why would I be embarrassed of you? I was embarrassed because of the way Renee was treating me. Like I would say the wrong thing and then you and your parents would leave and demand to be matched with someone else."

Edward looked truly confused. "Wait a minute. I don't understand. Why would she think that?"

Bella sighed and rolled her eyes. "Because, I'm a Romantic. She was afraid I would—"

"Wait," Edward interrupted with wide eyes. "You're a Romantic?"

"Yes, Edward. You already knew that."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did. When we met at the Java Hut that night, you told me it would be best to just go through with the marriage and not cause anyone any embarrassment. Remember?" Bella began picking at a loose thread on the couch, so Edward couldn't see the tears in her eyes.

"Shit," Edward mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. "Is that what you've been thinking this whole time?"

Bella nodded, growing more and more confused by the second.

"No, Bella, I wasn't talking about saving _you_ from embarrassment. I was talking about me."

Bella sat bewildered, still staring at him.

He looked uncertain for a moment, and then continued, "I'm a Hopeless."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"You really didn't know?" Edward asked.

"No, I had no idea. And you didn't know I was a Romantic."

"No, I didn't have any idea either."

They sat in silence for a long while before Bella spoke. "So, you're just a Hopeless?"

He nodded.

"How does that happen? I mean, I've never heard of someone being just a Hopeless. I thought you could only become a Hopeless if you were a Romantic first."

Edward chuckled darkly. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too." He stopped, collecting his thoughts. "When I was in the twelfth grade I started talking to one of my friends, Demetri, about the Matching. I told him that I didn't think it was right to force people to get married to someone they didn't choose. He agreed with me. We started talking about it more and more, and one day someone overheard us. I'm still not sure who, but I'm guessing it was a teacher. Anyway, they reported us and we were sent to the principal's office to be questioned.

"I was interviewed by the principal and a matchmaker. They questioned me for over an hour. I thought about lying, but I couldn't be sure who overheard me or even what Demetri was saying, so I told the truth and both of us ended up getting the label."

Edward paused and looked so upset that Bella took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently. He smiled at her, took a deep breath, and then continued. "I'll never forget the look on my mother's face when I got home that afternoon. She was heartbroken, and it wasn't because she was upset with me, it was because she didn't want to see me end up alone.

"And the thing was, I grew up seeing my parents in love and happy. I had firsthand knowledge that the Matching worked, but that wasn't enough for me.

"A couple of weeks later, Demetri told me he was planning on leaving the country after graduation. He said that we would always have this thing hanging over our heads here. I knew he was right, and I seriously thought about going with him.

"But then I thought about my mother. I remembered that look on her face. How she was so upset because she wanted me to be happy and find love like she had with my father. But I also knew that leaving would have killed her. So, I stayed. I decided that if I couldn't get matched, then at least I could stay here and be close to her and my dad.

"I went to college instead of The Preparation because I didn't think it mattered. I knew the chances of me ever being matched with someone were slim, so I didn't see the point of wasting all that money.

"Right after I entered The Matching, Stefan, my matchmaker, called me all the time with possible matches. But none of them worked out. No one wanted to be matched with me because of my label. After a few months, I told him not to bother calling me unless the match was a real possibility. I didn't hear from him again at all until he called to tell me about you.

"At first, I thought he had to be mistaken or was just messing with me, but he assured me he was serious. He cleared his schedule for the rest of the afternoon and I went over to his office to learn more about you that day. When he showed me your picture and when I saw it was you, I couldn't believe my luck," Edward said, looking down at his and Bella's joined hands.

"What do you mean when you saw it was me?" Bella asked.

"Mom, used to tell me that there was someone special out there for me and that she could feel it. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I went along with her when she said things like that. She was convinced that I just had to keep getting out there, so to placate her, twice a year I would go to one of those Sorting balls. I always felt so out of place. I would stay for an hour or so and then leave.

"As I was getting ready to leave the last one I went to, I saw you. You were laughing at something Angela said to you, and you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The way your whole face lit up when you laughed took my breath away. But then Angela got asked to dance and you were sitting all by yourself."

"I remember that," Bella exclaimed. "I was so mad at Angela and Jacob. It was our last official Sorting event and we promised to spend it together. Jacob saw a girl almost as soon as we got there and he bailed on us, and Angela got asked to dance all night. I just wanted to go home but I knew Renee would flip out if I came home too soon."

"Yeah, you looked annoyed and completely bored. But I remember thinking even as you were scowling at Angela dancing with that guy that you were beautiful. I decided that maybe my mother was right. For the first time in years I thought maybe I could be with someone. I didn't know if you would be interested in me but there was something about you that drew me in, and I decided to ask you to dance."

"Why didn't you?" Bella asked. She wondered how different things would have been if he had approached her that night.

"I was walking toward you when this guy with blond hair approached you and asked you to dance. I was hoping that you would tell him no because I really wanted to talk to you. But when you said yes and I saw you dancing with him, I knew I needed to leave. You were young and beautiful and wouldn't want to be with someone like me. So I went home and tried not to think about you," he sighed quietly.

"When Stefan showed me your picture and told me about you, I knew it was fate. I wanted to meet you as soon as possible. But then when I got to your house and you wouldn't even look at me or talk to me, I knew why. I knew it was because you were embarrassed to be matched with someone like me.

"At first, I was hurt and angry. I had this idea in my head about our first meeting and how it would go. When you were so quiet and looked so defeated, I thought it was because you wanted nothing to do with me. At the end of the night, when you told me goodnight, I was so hurt that I couldn't say anything back to you. I wanted to tell you I understood if you didn't want to be with me but that was a lie. It would have broken my heart if you refused to sign the matching contract.

"When I got home that night I couldn't sleep. I stayed up all night thinking about what I should do. I had a feeling your mother would make you sign your contract even though I was a Hopeless. I thought the best thing to do, for you, would be to tell Stefan to find me someone new, but I was selfish. I wanted to be with you in whatever way I could. I didn't care if that meant being married and sleeping in two different rooms. I just knew we had to be together."

"Can I ask you something else?" Edward's explanations were helping Bella to feel better about the beginnings of their relationship. But were still several other things she needed clarification about. "Do you remember the night you gave me my engagement ring?"

"Yeah." Edward nodded.

"Why were you so upset with me that night?"

"Do you remember anything about our phone conversation that night?" he asked.

Bella shook her head. "I just remember that you said you wanted to talk in person."

"I did. I knew you didn't want to be with me, but Stefan told me you signed the matching contract. I thought you only did it because you were feeling pressure from your family. I just wanted to talk to you and tell you I was glad we were going through with it. When we talked on the phone, and I asked you if I could come over to your house, you screamed no at me."

"That was just because I didn't want Renee to eavesdrop."

"See, I thought it was because, for some reason, you didn't want me at your house. I felt so bad at that point I said some things I didn't really mean when we met up at the Java Hut."

When Bella didn't say anything else for a while, Edward continued speaking. "And about your engagement ring. When I said that my mom picked it out, it wasn't that I didn't _try_ to pick one out for you. We went to look at rings that morning, and she told me all the ones I picked out were ugly or old fashioned. She suggested the one I ended up giving you."

"Edward," Bella began with a tremor in her voice. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" he asked searching her eyes.

"I'm sorry that I just assumed you hated me. I'm sorry that I judged you. I'm sorry that I didn't try to work this out sooner. I wish—"

"Stop," he told Bella. "You don't have anything to apologize for. All those things you just said, I did them, too. I wanted to get to know you. I wanted to spend time with you, but I was too afraid. Do you know how many times I practiced asking you out? How many times I almost did? I couldn't do it. I was terrified that you would turn me down."

"But think about all the time we wasted," Bella cried.

Edward nodded his head. He took Bella's face in his hands. "Think about all the time we have ahead of us."

As Bella stared deeply into Edward's eyes, she felt tears trickle their way down her cheeks.

"Please don't cry, baby," he whispered.

A sob worked its way up from Bella's chest when he called her baby. He wiped the tears from both her cheeks before he lightly kissed them, followed by both corners of her mouth. When he pulled away, Bella felt like he had moved across the country and not just across the couch. She realized then that she wanted him close to her always.

She needed him, she wanted him, and she loved him. Bella loved Edward. She was done falling. The realization hit her hard, and once again made it clear that he was too far away.

Looking deeply into his eyes, Bella scooted as close to him as possible without sitting on his lap. She watched his Adam's apple as he swallowed deeply and whispered her name. She licked her lips and leaned her body into his.

Edward closed the distance between them and brought his lips to hers. Still not feeling close enough, Bella wrapped her arms around Edward's neck. He responded by winding his arms around her waist and pulling her onto his lap.

Bella sighed into Edward's mouth and felt him deepen the kiss. Her head was spinning, her heart was pounding, she couldn't breathe, and she didn't ever want to stop.

Edward finally pulled away, placing a kiss on Bella's forehead and trying to catch his breath.

"Edward," Bella breathed, her chest rising and falling.

"Yeah, baby," he responded.

"I…" Bella wasn't sure if this was the right time to say it. She wasn't sure if he felt the same way. However she knew that they had wasted too much time in the past by not talking about what they were thinking and feeling and she was tired of it. "I love you."

Edward's eyes searched Bella's face for a long moment.

"It's okay. You don't have to say it back to me. I just wanted you to know," she assured him.

Edward laughed and pulled Bella into a searing kiss. "I love you, too, baby. I've loved you from the first moment I saw you."

They stayed wrapped up in each other's arms, lazily kissing, until Bella started to yawn.

"Are you tired?" Edward asked, placing a kiss on top of Bella's head.

"I guess so," Bella answered, stifling another yawn.

Edward helped her stand up from the couch and led her to her bedroom.

"Good night, baby," he said, giving Bella one last kiss.

"Where are you going?" Bella called when he started to pull away.

"To my room," Edward answered.

"Oh, I just thought that… never mind," Bella whispered, blushing.

"No, tell me, please. What were you thinking?"

"I was just thinking that you would stay with me tonight," Bella said in a rush, eyes downcast.

"Hey," Edward called, trying to get Bella to look at him.

When her eyes met his, he smiled. "Let's go to bed."

They walked hand in hand into the bedroom that had been Bella's alone for over four months. She got into bed while Edward took off his shirt and pants, leaving only his boxers on.

"Is this okay?" he asked Bella.

She nodded as she felt the bed shift and he climbed in beside her. They lay there for a moment, not sure what to do.

"Come here," Edward finally breathed.

Bella felt her heartbeat quicken. She scooted closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his nose in her hair.

He placed a kiss on her head and whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?" Bella asked pulling back slightly.

"For being the brave one, for being able to do what I was too afraid to do. For trying to make something more out of this, for wanting more for us."

Bella opened her mouth to say something but a huge yawn came out instead. Edward laughed and placed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Go to sleep," he said.

"I'm not tired," she said, trying to stifle another yawn.

"Yes, you are. It's after two. Go to sleep, I'll be right here when you wake up, in the morning or in the afternoon."

"Is it really that late? Work is going to suck tomorrow."

"You're one of the bosses, why don't you just take the day off tomorrow and spend it with me?"

Bella nodded and snuggled into Edward's chest. "I love you," she said.

"I love you," he replied.

Bella smiled before closing her eyes. She loved Edward and he loved her. Her life was so much better now that he was in it. She was never going to let him go.

* * *

I think I'm more nervous about this chapter than anyone before it. So, I'm going to go hide now.

Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie, and milehighhopes for the beta work.

I wanted to have this to you all sooner but school just started back and I've been sick.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read. You guys seriously blew me away with the response to the last chapter. I don't think I can say enough how much each and every review means to me. I love you guys for sticking with me. And I will be responded to reviews from the last chapter and this one.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

Bella pulled her hair up on top of her head and stretched. It had been a long day and she was ready to get home… home to Edward. Bella smiled to herself and shook her head. He made her ridiculously happy and she didn't know what she had done to deserve someone so wonderful.

Sometimes, she couldn't believe that she and Edward had ever had a difficult start to their relationship. The days of hardly speaking to each other and barely spending any time together were over. Edward made her extremely happy, and for the first time in her life, she was glad that the Matching existed. After all, anything that brought her together with Edward couldn't be that bad.

She was cleaning up in the kitchen when she heard her phone ringing. Her smile grew exponentially when she saw it was Edward calling.

"Hi," she answered, hearing the smile in her own voice.

"Hey, baby. What are you doing?"

"I'm just cleaning up before getting home to see you. What are you doing?"

"I got home early and I want to make you dinner. I was wondering what you wanted?"

"That's sweet. You don't have to do that."

"Well, I want to. I knew you wanted to go to sleep early last night and I felt bad for keeping you up."

Bella blushed and bit down on her lip, thinking about exactly how Edward had kept her up the night before. "I didn't mind. You can keep me like that anytime you want."

Edward chuckled. "I'm surprised. I thought for sure you would be in a bad mood because I kept you up and you had to go in to work early, hence my offer to fix you dinner."

"Hmm," Bella hummed. "I guess I must just really love you."

"I guess I really love you, too," he replied.

"Since we really love each other, why don't we make something together?" Bella suggested.

"We always cook together. I wanted to do something nice for you."

"Well, since you're being so nice, I guess you can pick what to cook."

"Okay, I think I'm going to head to the store and pick up some noodles so we can have spaghetti," he said.

"You don't have to do that. I can just stop on my way home."

"I don't mind. I'm going to leave now and I'll see you when you get home. I love you."

"I love you, too," Bella replied, hanging up the phone.

When Bella turned to put her phone back in her purse she noticed Alice was standing in the doorway of kitchen and it looked like she was vibrating slightly.

"Oh. My. God," Alice screamed.

"Alice, you don't have to yell," Bella said, covering her ears.

"Rose," Alice yelled, ignoring Bella's obvious objections and running out of the kitchen. "Rosalie, where are you?"

Bella groaned and sent a text to Edward. She told him she was probably going to be late getting home because her sisters wanted to talk.

Her message had just gone through when her sisters burst in the door. Alice was still shaking and Rose looked concerned and angry at the same time.

"What is going on?" Rose demanded, looking back and forth between her sisters.

"Ask Bella," Alice said.

Bella sighed and rubbed at her eyes. She hadn't told her sisters that she and Edward were in love. They knew that things were better between them but Bella was enjoying keeping this new part of her relationship with Edward to herself. However, thanks to Alice's eavesdropping, it seemed that her secret was a thing of the past.

"Bella," Rose called. "What happened? Alice came running into the office screaming and practically dragged me in here. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Bella mumbled.

"I think she's better than fine," Alice almost sang.

Bella rolled her eyes and took a seat. She decided that the sooner she told her sisters what they wanted to know the sooner she could get home.

"Go on, Bella," Alice continued. "Tell Rose what your phone conversation was all about."

"Alice, you shouldn't be listening in on other people's phone calls. Bella doesn't have to tell me who or what she was talking about if she doesn't want to."

"Thanks, Rose," Bella said. "But it's okay. I was going to tell you two eventually but I sort of wanted to keep it to myself for a little while longer."

"Bella, you don't have to say anything-"

"No, it's fine Rose," Bella interrupted. "Alice overheard me tell Edward that I love him."

"What?" Rose asked, her face softening.

"See, I told you it was big news," Alice said, clapping.

"Oh, Bella that's wonderful. I'm so happy for you two," Rose said and gave Bella a hug.

"Thanks, Rose."

"So, how long has this been going on?" Alice asked.

Bella shrugged. She wished her sisters didn't always know when she was lying. She knew without a doubt that this wasn't going to be a fun conversation. "A little over three weeks."

"Three weeks? Bella, why didn't you tell us?" Alice asked.

"I'm sorry, but I knew you guys would make this huge deal out of it and I didn't want that."

"But it is a huge deal," Alice insisted. "You came to us asking for advice about Edward and what to do to get him to stop hating you and now that you guys are in love you don't even bother to tell us. It hurts that you would keep something this big from us. We're supposed to tell each other everything."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Alice. Making me feel bad isn't helping though."

Alice looked as if she wanted to argue some more with Bella, but when she began speaking, Rose shook her head.

"You're right, Bella. You didn't have to tell us. Of course we would have liked to know because we love you but I understand why you wanted to keep it to yourself. Isn't that right, Alice?"

Alice huffed and shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

"So, how did it happen?" Rose asked, taking a seat beside Bella.

Bella told her sisters how things changed with Edward. She told them everything but left out the information about Edward being a Hopeless. She didn't think it was the right time to give her sisters that news. Rose listened intently to Bella's story and asked questions when she needed clarification about something. At first, Alice pretended not to listen but by the time Bella finished speaking Alice was oohing and ahhing along with Rose.

"I do have one question," Alice said.

"Just one?" Bella asked, sighing.

"One depending on your answer, there might have to be some follow up questions."

"What is it, Alice?"

"Have you guys had sex yet?"

Bella didn't respond to her sister's question but she felt her face grow hot and she knew she was given away by her stupid blush. She wasn't blushing because she was embarrassed about having sex with her husband. She just knew that telling Alice was going to mean having to answer a lot of questions that made her uncomfortable.

"Are you kidding me?" Alice groaned. "I can't believe you didn't tell us this either."

"Oh, Bella," Rose murmured. "Really?"

Bella nodded and Rose smiled at her with tears in her eyes.

"That's wonderful, sweetheart."

"Yeah, yeah," Alice said, waving Rose off. "It's wonderful, now I need details."

"Alice," Rose said, a warning in her voice.

"Don't _Alice_ me, Rosalie. She's been holding out on us for who knows how long. How long has it been, Bella?"

Bella sighed. "Two and a half weeks."

"See," Alice said, turning to look back at Rose. "So, how was it?"

"It was good, great," Bella replied, her face growing redder by the moment.

"That's all you have to say?"

"Alice, you know I don't feel comfortable talking about this kind of stuff."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Bella, you're a big girl now and I want details."

When Bella didn't say anything else, Alice huffed. She was quiet for a moment before she began to speak again. To make Bella feel more comfortable talking about her burgeoning sex life, Alice decided it would be a good idea to go into great detail about her escapades with Jasper. Alice was way too specific for Bella's liking. She thought of Jasper as an older brother and she was sure she wouldn't be able to look him in the face for a long while.

"Cut it out, Alice," Rose said, trying not to laugh. "I don't know why you thought that would help."

"What? What did I say that was so bad?" Alice asked, looking truly confused.

"I appreciate you trying to make me feel more comfortable but you know me well enough to know I'll never want to talk about something so private with you or Rose, sorry," Bella responded.

"You don't have to apologize to her," Rose began. "She's the one who loves to over share."

"I just don't understand how I ended up with two prudes for sisters. I swear I was adopted," Alice said, sighing.

Bella wanted to respond to her sister with a smart remark which would have no doubt started an argument. But Rose knew when trouble was about to start and asked Bella, once again, if things with Edward were really as great as she said they were.

"Yes, Rose," Bella answered. "Edward and I are ridiculously happy. I love him and he loves me."

"Well, is something else bothering you? You haven't been yourself lately and I thought whatever was bothering you had something to do with Edward."

Something was bothering Bella but she thought she had been doing a good job of hiding it from her sisters. Bella knew she needed to let them know about the information she learned from their Aunt Lucy. She didn't know how to go about telling them and had almost done so on numerous occasions, but something stopped her each time. She didn't know what was stopping her, but keeping the information from her sisters was stressing her out and she couldn't do it anymore.

"Something has been bothering me but it doesn't have anything to do with Edward," Bella said, looking back and forth between her sisters.

"What is it?" Alice asked.

Bella took a deep breath and proceeded to tell her sisters everything their Aunt had told her. She found herself pacing around the kitchen because she wasn't able to look at her sisters while giving them news. She was afraid that if she looked directly at them she would forget exactly what she wanted to say and it was important to her to get everything right. When she finished talking and there was no response from her sisters she turned to glance at them. They were sharing a look that Bella didn't like.

"Will you guys say something?" she asked.

Bella saw Alice mouth something to Rose who sighed and said, "Fine."

"What? What's fine?"

"Sit down, Bella," Rose said. When Bella sat, Rose continued. "We sort of already knew all of that."

"You knew? I don't understand. Aunt Lucy didn't say anything about telling you two any of this."

"That's because it wasn't Lucy who told us," Alice replied.

"Well, then, who told you?"

"Pop, he told us right before he died," Rose said.

Pop was the girl's maternal grandfather. He passed away shortly after Alice got matched with Jasper. Bella always thought she had a close relationship with Pop and she couldn't understand why he didn't feel the need to give this information to her if he gave it to her sisters. "Why would he tell you and not tell me?"

"We went to visit him one afternoon to tell him about Alice and Jasper," Rose began, looking down at her hands. "We asked you if you wanted to come see him but you were spending the afternoon with Jacob and Angela. Alice told him she was worried about marrying Jasper because she didn't like him and she definitely didn't love him. He told her that everything would be alright. She asked him how he knew and that's when he told us about Mom and Dad."

"I still don't understand why I'm the last to know," Bella breathed.

"Bella, you were four when Dad died and we know you don't really remember a lot about him. We didn't want the memories you do have to be ruined." Rose said.

"Ruined, how?" Bella asked.

"What do you remember about Dad? I mean, besides what we've told you."

Bella shook her head. "I don't know. I can't really tell the difference between the memories that are actually mine and the ones I have because of what I've been told."

"Are they good memories or bad ones?"

"They're good," Bella said. "I still don't understand why you didn't tell me."

"Just tell her, Rose," Alice said.

"I will," Rose replied, rubbing her temples. "I just don't know where to start."

It was quiet in the kitchen while Rose gathered her thoughts. Bella sat looking at both of her sisters, wondering why they felt the need to hide something like this from her. The longer Rose was silent, the more Bella grew agitated. She knew if someone didn't say something soon she would say something she might later regret.

"When Pop told us that Mom and Dad weren't ever really in love-" Rose started.

"They weren't ever really in love?" Bella interrupted. "That's not what Lucy said."

Rose smiled sadly at Bella. "I'm just telling you what Pop told me and what I've come to on my own after all these years."

"Fine," Bella huffed.

"When I was younger, I did think they were in love. I guess I didn't really know any better since theirs was the only romantic relationship I ever really witnessed. As I got older and spent more time at friends' houses I saw how their parents behaved and I realized something was right between our parents."

"What wasn't right?" Bella asked.

"They weren't very affectionate with each other."

"That doesn't mean anything. A lot of people aren't comfortable with PDA," Bella responded.

"I know that, but that wasn't all. It was the way Dad looked at Mom and the way he talked to her. It was like she was this obligation that was forced on him.

"Pop told us that Mom tried really hard to make things work because she really loved him, at first. He said he wished we knew Mom before we were born. He said she was a lot happier and a lot less controlling back then."

"I don't understand," Bella said in a whisper. "Why would they have children if they didn't love each other?"

"That was Nana," Alice said, speaking up for the first time. "Pop said that Nana would have cut Mom and Dad off if they didn't kids. They got pregnant with Rose just to get her off their backs."

Bella looked at Rose who was wiping tears from her eyes. "Are you alright?" Bella asked.

Rose cleared her throat. "It's just hard to hear that you were born out of obligation and not love. I'll be fine. I get a little weepy whenever I think about it."

"Why did they have you and me?" Bella asked, looking at Alice.

"I don't really know." Alice shrugged. "Pop assumed they wanted a boy or maybe Nana promised them more money, who knows."

"I think that's why Mom was always so obsessed about us being matched with the right men," Rose told her sisters. "I think she didn't want us to feel what she did. She went about it in the worst way possible, of course, but she wanted more for us."

Bella felt like someone had slapped her across the face. She couldn't fathom how so many of her beliefs had been shattered in a short amount of time.

"Bella, I don't want this to make you think badly of Dad. He loved us and he was so happy when you were born. I think he loved Mom, too, as the mother of his children. He was a good man," Rose said.

"I still don't understand why you two felt the need to hide this from me all these years. I would love it if you could explain that to me," Bella demanded. She wanted to sound stronger than she felt. Crying wouldn't do her any good, any tears she produced would be sure to halt all conversation.

"The look on your face, right now," Alice said, pointing at Bella. "That's why we never said anything. Neither of us wanted to know any of this. I was much happier before I knew. When we first found out, you had just started The Preparation and you were miserable all the time. What good would it have done to tell you then?"

"Fine, I'll give you that. But you had five years after that to tell me and I'm just finding out now. I wouldn't even know now except that I made Lucy tell me."

"I'm sorry, Bella," Rose said. "We both are. I promise you that we did it because we didn't want to hurt you. Maybe we should have told you sooner, but like Alice said, I was happier not knowing, too. I may have had my suspicions before but now I know it's true."

"I need to go." Bella stood up quickly and turned to gather her things.

"Don't go, Bella. We need to talk about this," Rose pleaded.

"I don't really want to talk anymore right now. I just want to go home."

"Bella, don't go like this. You're upset and we should work this out before you leave," Alice said.

"I'll be fine. Edward is expecting me at home and I don't want to keep him waiting," Bella told her sisters as she headed for the door.

"No, sit back down, Bella. We're going to finish talking about this like adults. You're not just going to run away because you don't like what we're telling you," Alice said.

"Excuse me, Alice? Are you or are you not the person who just told me how hurt you were that I kept something from you for three weeks? Something that didn't have anything to do with you, I might add. So, I want you to think about how I must feel. You've been keeping this from me for years."

"Alice, it's alright. Let her go home," Rose said, turning to Alice. "We'll talk about this later."

Bella didn't respond to Rose's comment. She knew it would be a while before she talked about this, or anything else for that matter, with her sisters again. She sat in her car for a moment, trying to come to terms with the news she had just been given, before driving home.

The reasons her sisters gave her for keeping this news about her parents from her just weren't good enough. She simply couldn't comprehend keeping something like this from them for five plus years.

What hurt her most of all was the fact that her parents only had children to inherit money from her grandmother. She couldn't imagine what it must have felt like for her mother to have children with a man who didn't love or even particularly like her. Bella knew she wouldn't have been able to have children with Edward at the beginning of their marriage no matter how much money she was promised.

Thinking about what her mother went through actually made Bella feel bad for her. She wouldn't ever forget some of the horrible and selfish things she had done but she guessed she had a better understanding of why Renee was the way she was. Bella felt that maybe things with her mother would have been different had she known five years ago what she knew now. The things Renee had done in the past made much more sense to Bella presently. Bella thought about what Pop said about wishing the girls had known their mother before she had children. Seeing a kinder, gentler Renee was something Bella would have loved to see.

Before she knew it, Bella was sitting in the parking lot of her apartment complex. She had been so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't realize she had driven home.

When she walked in the door of the apartment and smelled dinner cooking, she realized she had lost her appetite.

"Hey," Edward called. "Have you been talking to your sisters this whole time? I was getting worried about you."

"Yeah," Bella answered, heading toward the kitchen.

When Edward heard her approaching the kitchen he turned around from the stove with a smile on his face. His smile fell, however, when he took in Bella's appearance. "Are you okay?" he asked, walking over to Bella and taking her face in his hands.

"No," Bella responded.

"What happened, baby?" he asked.

"I don't really want to talk about it right now," Bella said. "Will you just hold me for a little while?"

Edward nodded and led Bella to the living room couch. He sat down and Bella snuggled into his chest. She sighed and closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on her forehead. She tried to keep her tears at bay but the combination of the shocking information she learned from her sisters and not getting enough sleep the night before was too much for her to take.

"Hey," Edward said when he heard begin to cry. "Everything will alright, okay?"

Bella nodded against his chest. Now that she was safe in his arms, she knew that everything would be.

* * *

I wonder what everyone thinks about this latest development?

If I can stick to my outline there should be five more chapters until the end of the story. Would you all like me to write the last five chapters and then post one a week once they're written or post them as I write them? Let me know in the reviews.

Some people asked about lemons and I hate to disappoint anyone but this story is rated T/PG-13. So there won't be any lemons in this story. Sorry.

Thank you all once again for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie, and milehighhopes for the beta work.

Again I have to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. It was completed a while ago but my family went through something a little over a month ago that I can only describe as traumatic and I'm just now starting to put my life back in order. The next chapter is completed as well and I plan to get that to you all before Christmas.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through all these long waits between chapters. I really appreciate it.

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

When Angela gave Bella a call late one Saturday morning, Bella almost didn't answer the phone. It had been a little over a week since she found out her sisters had been keeping secrets from her about their parents, and Bella hadn't spoken to Rose or Alice in all that time.

For the first couple of days, her sisters seemed content to let Bella work through her issues by herself. However, the one week mark seemed to signal the end of their patience. Each of them called multiple times a day, and when their insistent calling didn't work, they resorted to trying to trick Bella into talking to them. Their latest tactic made Bella not want to touch her phone at all. Rose let Gracie leave Bella a pitifully sad voicemail asking if she was still going to come to her fifth birthday party. Rose knew nothing would keep Bella from Grace's party, so listening to her little niece begging Bella to come to her party was crossing a line in Bella's eyes. After that she tried to give her phone to Edward so she wouldn't be tempted to read any texts or listen to any voicemails her sisters left for her. Edward, however, refused, saying that he didn't want to get in the middle of an argument between Bella and her sisters.

When her phone started ringing that morning Bella was sure it was Rose calling to remind her that Gracie's birthday party was that afternoon at Rose and Emmett's house. Bella almost let Angela's call go to voicemail, but she checked to see who was calling at the last minute and picked up right away when she saw it wasn't one of her sisters.

Bella and Angela spent the rest of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon reminiscing about their childhood and talking about married life. In the past, when the two friends talked about their lives, Angela did most of the talking, and anything that Bella shared about her life with Edward was either an exaggeration or a lie. It made Bella happy to finally have something truthful and substantial to say about her marriage.

"Hold on one second. I'm getting another call," Angela said suddenly. "Never mind, it's just my mother."

"Oh, that's all right. I can go if you need to talk to her."

"No, it's fine. I don't really feel up to talking to her right now."

"Is everything all right?" Bella asked. Angela was extremely close to her mother, so Bella knew something had to be wrong if Angela didn't want to talk to her.

"It'll be fine. She's just on a little bit of a baby kick."

"That doesn't sound like your Mom. Has she been hanging out with Renee?"

"No, but the twins just started high school and they're her babies," she said sighing. "I guess she wants another baby to spoil, and she's elected me to have it."

"I'm sorry, Ang. I definitely know how you feel."

"Speaking of babies, when do you think you two will be ready for a little one?"

"Angela," Bella exclaimed. "Not you too."

"I'm just asking. I'm not going to call you every five seconds to make sure you've stopped taking the pill."

"Well, we haven't really talked about it. But I'm just enjoying being married for right now. I kind of just want it to be the two of us for a little while longer."

"Yeah, that's sort of how I feel too. We have plenty of time to have a bunch of kids."

"A bunch? Just how many are you planning on having?" Bella asked laughing.

"I don't know, maybe four. Why how many do you want to have?"

"Not a bunch, I can tell you that much. I remember what it was like for Rose when she had Grace, and I don't think I want to go through that four times."

"I'm hurt. You don't want to have a bunch of babies with me?" Edward called from the bedroom doorway.

"Don't do that," Bella shrieked, sending Edward a dirty look.

"What? What's wrong?" Angela asked.

"It's just Edward. He has this habit of sneaking up on me."

"I hate to interrupt, but we need to leave now if we're going to make it to the party on time," Edward said.

Bella sighed, not because she didn't want to go to her niece's party but because she wasn't looking forward to spending time with her sisters. She said a quick goodbye to her best friend, grabbed Gracie's birthday present, and followed Edward out to the car.

As they got closer to Rose and Emmett's house, Bella tried her hardest to disappear into her seat. Edward looked over at her and smiled. "It's going to be all right, you know that, right?"

"I know. If I decide not to talk to them they're not going to make a scene at Gracie's party."

"You're probably right. But I think you should at least hear them out. They were wrong, especially to keep this from you for so long, but they're your sisters and they love you."

Bella didn't respond and looked back out the window. She sighed when they parked in her sister's driveway and saw that the only other vehicle at the house that didn't belong to Emmett or Rosalie was Alice's.

"We're here kind of early, huh?" she asked.

Edward shrugged. "This is what time Rose asked us here. They probably just want help setting up."

"Trust me, she doesn't need any help. This is all just part of her plan to get me to talk to her. But it's not going to work," Bella said, as she made her way into the house.

"Bella, look, I completely understand why you're upset with your sisters. But today isn't about the three of you. I'm not saying you have to forgive them today, but you owe it to Gracie to at least try to get along."

"You know, it's really annoying when you're all rational and stuff, and I get it. I'll be on my best behavior, for Gracie. Let's go find the birthday girl. I want to spend some time with her before all her friends get here."

Hearing noises coming from the backyard, Edward and Bella headed in that direction.

"Auntie Bella! Uncle Edward!" Grace screeched.

Bella smiled as she ran over to them. "Hi there, Miss Gracie," she said leaning down to give her a hug.

"Hi," she said, the biggest smile on her face. "It's my birthday. I get cake and presents."

"Wait a minute," Bella said looking confused. "You get cake _and_ presents. Are you sure?"

"Yep, I saw the cake this morning. It's pink. And," she whispered, "I saw Daddy hiding some presents in his room."

"You did?" Edward asked.

"Uh huh, they were pink, too."

"Wow," he breathed. "Well, you are a lucky little birthday girl."

"You wanna see my cake?" she asked, eyes bright.

"Of course we do," Bella replied. "Where is it?"

"Inside, come on," she said, running toward the house.

"Someone is excited," Edward said chuckling.

"I think that's way more than excited," Bella said as she watched Grace practically bang on the sliding glass door so someone would let her into the house.

"Is it locked?" Edward asked.

Before Grace could answer, Rosalie opened the door. "Grace, didn't I ask you not to bang on the door? You're a big girl now, and you know how big girls knock, don't you?"

"Yes. I just wanted to show them my cake," she said, looking back at Edward and Bella.

"Oh, Bella how long have you two been here?"

Bella smiled at her sister. She should have known it wasn't going to take long for her to find some way to force to Bella talk to her. "Just a couple of minutes," she replied.

"Well, come on in," she said, leading them into the kitchen where Alice was waiting.

"Gracie," Alice called as soon as Edward and Bella had spent some time admiring Grace's pink princess cake. "Your Daddy wants to show you something in your room."

"Is it a present?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. Why don't you go find out?"

"Okay," Gracie answered, skipping out of the room.

"Oh and Edward, Jasper said he wanted to talk to you about something," Alice added. "He's in Gracie's room too."

"Oh, okay. I'll be back," Edward said, glancing back at Bella before following Grace out of the room.

Bella rolled her eyes and shook her head. "That was real subtle, ladies."

"How else were we supposed to get you to talk to us?" Alice asked.

"I don't know. I guess you could have waited for me to come to you."

"We know you too well, Bella. It would have taken you at least another two weeks before you agreed to talk to us."

"Maybe that's what I needed to be able to process everything. Did you guys think of that?"

"Listen, Bella, we don't want to argue with you about what happened last week. We just wanted to be able to talk to you today without everything being tense," Rose said.

"I don't want to argue with you guys either," Bella said. "And I want to be able to talk to you again. But there are some things I want to say first."

"Okay, what do you want to say?"

"First, I want you to understand how much it hurt me to find out that you all were keeping secrets from me. The other day you sort of made me feel like I didn't have the right to be upset or that you did me this huge favor by not telling me. I know you had your reasons for keeping it from me, but they're my parents too, and if you knew I should have known."

"Okay," Rose sighed. "I agree and I apologize. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but you're right, you deserved to know."

"I'm sorry too, Bella," Alice said.

"Thanks and I want to apologize too. I know I could have handled things better after you told me. I probably should have tried to talk about things then, but I was just too upset."

"Well, you handled the news better than I did. So you don't need to apologize for that," Alice replied.

"There's one more thing I wanted to talk to you two about."

"What's that?" Rose asked.

"Well, it's about Mom. I think we should talk to her about this. I want to hear her side of things."

"Oh, Bella, I don't think that a good idea," Rose said.

"Why not?" Bella asked. She had thought about talking to Renee about Charlie a lot over the past week. She knew the conversation would be uncomfortable for everyone involved, but she wanted her mother to explain how things truly were for her when she married her father.

"Okay, well first of all she's going to deny it."

"But we have proof," Bella said.

"I don't think it's a good idea to drag Aunt Lucy into this," Alice said. "Didn't she ask you not to say anything to anyone?"

"Yes, she did but—" Bella began.

"No, Bella, think about it," Rose interrupted. "If we go to her and say that Lucy told us then she's just going to take it out on Lucy."

"Okay, then we can tell her that Pop told us."

"Then she'll probably say something about how he was old, confused, and wasn't remembering things right."

"Well, then Rose can just tell her what she remembers."

"Fine, why are we doing this to her?" Alice asked.

"What?"

"That's something she's going to ask us. Why we're doing this to her? Why are we bringing up these painful memories? Do we want to hurt her?"

"We'll tell her that we don't want to hurt her. All we want is to talk about what happened."

"Then she'll just say talking about it is too painful. Or that we must want to hurt her if we keep asking her these questions. We've thought about all this before, Bella. We wanted to ask her about all this right after we found out, but we didn't because she'll never talk about this with us. She'll say she's feeling faint or something everything time we try. It's not worth it, trust me," Rose said.

Bella wanted to disagree with her sisters. She wanted to try to make them understand how important it was to get the truth from their mother. But she knew they wouldn't get where she was coming from. Bella knew how it felt to be in a loveless marriage and so did Renee. Bella wanted to believe that if she talked to her mother about how strained things were at the beginning of her marriage with Edward, that maybe things would get better between them.

"Maybe, you're right," Bella replied.

"It might not seem like we are right now, but if you think it over some more I think you'll see it's best not to talk about this with her."

Bella nodded. But she knew that thinking things over wouldn't change the way she felt. One way or another she was going to find a way to get the truth from her mother.

"So, do you need any help setting things up?" Bella asked, even though she knew the answer to her question would be a big no.

"Ha," Alice laughed, covering her mouth when Rose sent her a dirty look.

"What's so funny?" Bella asked.

"Oh please, Bella. You know better than to ask her if she needs any help. I got here an hour ago and everything was already set up. Then when Jasper got a soda out of the cooler she flipped out and said those were only for the party and kicked all the guys out."

"I did not flip out. All I asked was how Jasper stayed employed as a teacher if he couldn't read," Rose said.

"Read what?" Bella asked.

"She put a sign on the cooler that said: _do not drink, for party guests only_."

"Well, Jasper is a party guest right?"

"No," Rose said. "Not right now he's not. The party doesn't start for another half hour. He'll be a party guest then."

"That doesn't make sense, Rose," Bella began.

"Trust me Bella, it's not worth it," Alice said. "She's right and you're wrong."

"You know what, planning and executing a birthday party all on your own for a five year-old is hard work. So maybe I'm a little stressed out. The least my family could do is cut me some slack."

"But you didn't have to do it on your own. We all would have helped you," Alice said.

"I know that, but you wouldn't have helped right," Rose exclaimed.

"Helped right? That doesn't even make any sense. How can help be right or wrong, Rosalie?"

Bella couldn't help but laugh as she watched her sisters bicker back and forth. It wasn't until this exact moment that she realized how much she had missed them.

"It can be wrong when someone claims they know how to make origami cranes and in the process of making said cranes ruins about forty sheets of expensive origami paper that I special ordered online," Rose said throwing Alice a dirty look. "You have no idea how hard it was to change the theme of my baby shower two days before hand."

"Seriously, Rose, you're bringing up those damn cranes again? I said I was sorry then and I'm sorry now, but that was six years ago. Let it go."

"I have let it go. That's why I don't ask you all for help anymore."

"And another thing, no one told you to plan your own baby shower. Bella and I were doing just fine before you took over."

"Just fine? You had no theme, the party was just going to be us sitting around at Mom's house eating and playing games."

"That's what a baby shower is, Rosalie."

Rose was stopped from responding by the sound of her door bell ringing. "That's probably, Mom. I'll be right back."

Even though Bella had seen them do it hundreds of times before, she would never be able to get over how easy it was for her sisters argue and not have any hurt feeling afterwards. Unless the fight involved some kind of physical altercation, her sisters were quickly able to forget whatever they were disagreeing about and move on to something else. Bella knew that nothing would be said about the cranes for the rest of the day, and when Alice turned to face Bella with a big smile on her face Bella knew the matter was already forgotten.

"We haven't talked in almost two weeks .How are things with the hubby?"

"Things are great," Bella said smiling. "I really love him a lot, Alice."

"That's great, Button. I'm so happy for you two."

"Thanks."

"And are things still great in other areas?" Alice asked raising an eyebrow.

"Alice, cut it out," Bella demanded. "We are not talking about this, especially not now at a five-year-old's birthday party."

"Fine," Alice huffed. "One of these days my real family is going to show up and my life will make so much more sense."

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm the one that was adopted, Alice. You're a Swan through and through."

"Neither one of you were adopted, and I have the stretch marks to prove it," Renee called as she walked through the kitchen door.

This was the first time Bella had seen her mother since finding out the truth about her father. She didn't know what she was expecting but felt kind of disappointed to see that her mother looked exactly the same.

After the women exchanged pleasantries, Renee went off in search of Gracie. When she was out of earshot Alice leaned over to Bella and said, "Okay, so maybe I wasn't adopted, but I was definitely switched at the hospital."

*o*o*

Bella really enjoyed herself at the birthday party. She thought that it would have been nearly impossible for anyone to have been in bad mood after seeing how happy Grace was.

Her only complaint all day was that her sisters refused to leave her alone with their mother for even a few minutes. Bella wasn't planning on talking to Renee at the party about Charlie, but she did want to ask her mother out to lunch or something that week. Alice and Rose must have thought that Bella was going to demand the truth from Renee in the middle of cake and ice cream and didn't give Bella a chance to speak to her mother until they were walking to their cars after the party was over.

Bella asked Renee if she wanted to come over to the apartment for coffee one afternoon. And the look of pure joy on Renee's face at Bella's invitation made Bella feel the tiniest bit bad for not trying to spend more time with her mother in the past, especially now that she was living in that big house all alone.

In the days leading up to Renee's visit to the apartment, Bella became increasingly nervous. She wasn't at all sure how she was going to begin the conversation she wanted to have with her mother. She knew that just coming out and telling her mother what she knew wouldn't do any good. So Bella decided the best way to talk about this sensitive issue with Renee would be to tell her all about the first couple of months of her marriage with Edward. Bella hoped that if Renee listened to what Bella had to say and realized how similar their experiences were, that maybe she would open up to Bella.

Not wanting to keep anything this important from her sisters, Bella told them her plan. They both reiterated that they didn't think it was a smart idea for Bella to have this conversation with Renee but told Bella that they supported her decision and even offered to be there for moral support. But Bella decided that this was something she needed to do on her own.

When the big day finally arrived Bella let over an hour go by without her being able to say what she wanted. She was afraid that instead of sticking to her plan that she would just blurt out everything she knew about her parents. However, when Renee brought up the subject of Bella's wedding pictures, she knew the perfect way to tell her mother about the start of her marriage.

"Dear, I have to ask why is it that you have so few wedding pictures out? I know you ordered more than the two you have in here, right?" Renee asked.

Bella took a deep breath and gave herself a small pep talk. She knew that this wasn't going to be easy, but she had to try. "Honestly, I hate just about all of our pictures."

"Well, why is that? You look beautiful in all the ones I've seen."

"Thanks, Mom. But the truth is, I wasn't very happy to be marrying Edward that day."

"What? I don't understand."

"Mom, Edward and I couldn't really stand each other when we were first matched. There was a lot of miscommunication between us, and I didn't really want to marry him or be with him at all. So to me, whenever I look at those pictures, all I can see is the girl who was miserable and terrified to marry a man she didn't love."

"Oh," Renee sobbed. She grabbed one of Bella's hands and gave it a squeeze. "I had no idea."

Bella nodded. "That was what we wanted. We were both embarrassed, so we tried to make it seem like we at least liked in each other public. But when we got back home he went to his room and I went to mine."

"You had separate rooms? I knew you two didn't hit it off like Rose and Emmett, but I didn't think… It wasn't supposed to be like this for you or your sisters. I never wanted you to feel the way…I never wanted that for you."

"I know that, Mom," Bella said, handing her mother a tissue. "But you can't blame yourself, Edward and I didn't really make an effort to get to know each other until a few months ago. And even though things didn't start off great for us, we're really happy now."

"Are you really?" Renee asked. "Because all I ever wanted for you and your sisters was for all of you to be happy."

"I really am. Edward makes me very happy."

Renee smiled. "I'm glad that you two are happy together now. I know that I was hard on you growing up and that I didn't want you to have all these ideas about falling in love with your soul mate, but I just didn't want to see you get your hopes up. It's a terrible feeling thinking you've been matched with the man of your dreams only to find out that he doesn't feel the same way about you and that he never will. I never wanted you or your sisters to know that feeling."

"Mom, I don't understand. Are you saying…?"

Renee dabbed her eyes and laughed lightly. "I think you know exactly what I'm saying, Bella. You know your Aunt Lucy was never able to keep a secret."

"She told you what she told me?" Bella asked, completely shocked.

Renee nodded. "I've been waiting for this talk for a while now."

"Why didn't you just tell us the truth a long time ago? If I had known all this growing up I think we probably would have gotten along a lot better."

"Yes, well that might be true. But I loved your father very much, I still do, and I just didn't want anything to make you girls think less of him."

Bella wanted to tell her mother that she was wrong and that had she known the truth growing up that it wouldn't have changed the way she thought about her dad. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized Renee was probably right.

Growing up, whenever she got into it with her mother she always dreamed about what would have happened if her father had been there. She used to sit in her room and pretend he was there to comfort her after a bad day at school, and he was always patient, kind, and understanding. In that moment Bella realized how glad she truly was that her mother didn't ruin the perfect image she dreamed up of her father; she really needed him growing up. What Bella hoped for now was to work on her relationship with her mother. She never thought they would have the opportunity to be as close as Angela and her mother were, but now that they both knew the truth, Bella was hopeful that one day, with time, they could be.

* * *

The next chapter starts the beginning of the end. I mean it this time. Haha!

Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!


	14. Chapter 14

Thanks to Twilightzoner for the validation.

Thanks to xrxdanixrx, charmie and milehighhopes for the beta work.

Two chapters in one month! How awesome am I? Thanks to everyone who continues to read and review. Each and every review means the world to me! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

I don't own Twilight.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen

Bella spent her morning watching the front of the store while her sisters prepared for a meeting with a client. Bella would have much rather been helping her sisters, but Bree had called in sick that morning, leaving Bella as the only person available to help customers.

And help them she did until about ten when the store went completely dead, leaving her with nothing to do to occupy her time until one when Edward would arrive to take her to lunch. She straightened up and did some sweeping, but that didn't take nearly enough time. After she did all she could do without leaving the register unattended, she took a seat behind the counter and started to think about a conversation she had with her sisters that morning.

Almost immediately after she had the talk with her mother about her father, Bella drove to the bakery to tell her sisters everything that happened. They were both shocked to find out that not only did Renee know what their aunt told Bella, but also that she admitted to everything. All three girls wondered what this meant and if their mother was going to be turning over a new leaf now that the truth had come out.

Shortly after Bella's talk with her sisters, she learned that both of them had gotten calls from their mother who wanted to get together to talk. Rose met with her first and reported that her interaction with Renee had gone much better than she was expecting.

Alice was another story. "She's just acting so weird," Alice said that morning as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"What do you mean weird?" Rose asked.

"She's being nice. I don't like it," Alice replied.

"What? You've always complained about how she treats us, and now that she's being nice you don't like it? I don't get it, Alice," Rose said.

"Okay, the nice thing would be great, but I don't buy it. She's just magically turned into this happy person? Yeah right. I'm not falling for it."

"Well, I don't think she's magically changed, either," Bella said. "I was talking to her yesterday, and before we got off the phone, she gave me Caius' new phone number."

"So, what's wrong with that?" Alice asked.

"Nothing, except after she did that she told me I should go see him before my hair situation got out of control."

"Hair situation? What is that even supposed to mean?" Rose asked.

"I think it has something to do with those split ends, Bella," Alice answered. "I noticed them, but I kept forgetting to say something to you."

Bella rolled her eyes. "So, you see she hasn't changed completely into this wonderful doting mother. But she is trying, and I guess that's what really matters. I mean, I didn't even have the urge to reach through the phone and strangle her when she made her hair situation comment."

"I guess," Alice said, sighing. "So, I guess I should just suck it up and go out to dinner with her next week."

"I don't see why not," Rose said.

"Yeah, I guess it will be okay, and if it isn't then at least I'll get a free meal out of it.

Bella sighed, checked her watch, and saw that it was almost twelve. She was hungry and bored. She knew the woman who her sisters were meeting with was very anal, but she had hoped that they would be done setting up by now so she could have someone to talk to.

Bella hoped that everything went well with these clients because according to her sisters, they owned a chain of stores in Washington and they promised the bakery more business if things went well with their vow renewal ceremony, which was the next day. Bella crossed her fingers and wished that everything would work out during the meeting today as well as at the ceremony tomorrow.

When she heard her stomach growling, Bella glanced at the clock and saw she still had well over half an hour until she would be eating lunch. She sighed, patted her stomach, and began counting the minutes until Edward would arrive.

*o*o*

When Michael Newton's parents decided to get their wedding vows renewed, Mike didn't think much about it. He had bigger things to worry about. It was April, and he had been in the Matching for almost a year.

It was something he couldn't understand. When his name first went into the Matching, he was sure he would be placed with someone within a week. And it wasn't just any someone he thought he would be put with; he knew he would be with Isabella Swan.

He and Isabella made an almost perfect match. He knew he wanted to be with her when he first saw her sitting by herself at a Sorting ball. She was shy, pretending like she wasn't interested in his advances, but he knew she was meant for him.

When he first met with Eric, his matchmaker, he requested Isabella specifically, and even though he wasn't supposed to, Eric told Mike that he and Isabella were a guaranteed match because their compatibility score was ninety-two percent. When two weeks passed without being matched with Isabella, Mike brushed it off. He knew that good things were worth waiting for. But then a month went by and then another, and he was still waiting.

He spoke with Eric often. He assured Mike that he was working to secure his match with Isabella. Mike, however, couldn't understand what the problem was.

Then one day out of the blue, Eric called him to tell him that Isabella had been removed from the Matching database. Mike was confused and concerned. He knew that Isabella couldn't have been matched with anyone else. Their compatibility score was as close to prefect as you could get.

Mike asked Eric why Isabella had been removed from the database, but Eric wouldn't give him a straight answer. He told Mike to forget about Isabella and to give him names of other women he thought would be a good match. But Mike couldn't forget about her. He thought something must have happened to a member of her family. Or maybe she had gotten sick. He wanted to let her know he was willing to wait for as long as it took for them to be together.

So when his mother was trying to decide where to have her vow renewal cake made, Mike remembered Isabella mentioning Just Desserts and suggested it. His mother agreed.

His plan had been to accompany his mother on a trip to the bakery, but so far every visit she had made had been when Mike was otherwise occupied. This time, however, he made sure to have no plans when his mother went to her final consultation.

As he drove his mother to the bakery, Mike felt good. He was going to see Isabella and inform her of his intentions to wait for her. He couldn't wait to see the look of surprise on her face when he nonchalantly showed up with his mother. Maybe he could even convince her to put herself back in the Matching.

Smiling as he pulled into the parking lot of Just Desserts, Mike knew that it was going to be great day.

*o*o*

Bella's boredom was eliminated when she found a book she had left behind the counter. Normally, she wouldn't read unless someone else was watching the front of the store with her, but she was bored. It had been a slow day, and Edward would be there soon.

After Rose and Alice had finished preparing for their final meeting with their client, they came out to the front of the shop to wait for them to arrive. Bella was completely engrossed in her book, when she heard someone call her name.

"Hi, Isabella." She looked up to see a smiling face looking back at her.

"Um, hi Mike," Bella replied. "Can I help you with something?"

Mike chuckled. "No, I'm here with my mom; she just went back to talk with your sisters. I guess you weren't paying attention. That must be a good book."

Bella blushed and put the book down. "So, um… what's up?"

"Nothing much," he sighed. "How have you been?"

Bella smiled. "I've been good. How about you?"

"I've been well," Mike said, frowning. "I've actually been kind of worried about you."

"Why?" Bella asked, trying not to grimace.

"Well, my matchmaker told me you had been taken out of the matching database." Bella nodded and Mike continued. "And well, I just thought that something had happened to you. I thought maybe you or one of your family members had gotten sick."

"No." Bella shook her head. "I got matched. I've been married for almost six months now."

Mike's mouth dropped open slightly, and he stared at Bella. "You're not serious are you?"

Bella held up her left hand to show Mike her wedding band and engagement ring.

"Oh." Mike swallowed, his face growing pale. "Wow, I was not expecting that. I mean, you and I are supposed to be together."

"Mike, you only think that now because you haven't been matched yet. When you do get matched, you're going to forget all about me."

"No, I don't think so. You and I have a ninety-two percent compatibility score. You don't get much higher than that."

"Wait," Bella exclaimed, her breath hitching in her chest. "How do you know our compatibility score? That's confidential."

"My matchmaker and I are good friends, and he told me the score," he told Bella, waving her off. "But I mean, come on, Bella. Ninety-two percent is as close to perfect as you get. When he told me our score, I knew we would be together—that we should be together."

Bella wanted to tell Mike off. She couldn't believe his nerve. It was almost as if he thought telling Bella their compatibility score would make her want to leave Edward and run off into the sunset with him. She was completely disgusted with Mike's behavior, but she also knew that yelling at him the day before his mother's party with her a few feet away would be bad for business. And a small part of her did feel sorry for him. She couldn't imagine how hard it must've been for someone with his background to be in the Matching for almost a year.

"Look, Mike, I love my husband. We're very happy together. I know you only feel like this because you're frustrated, but you'll find someone soon. The person you're really meant to be with is out there."

Mike opened his mouth to no doubt argue with Bella further, when Rose, Alice, and a woman Bella assumed was Mike's mother appeared.

"Mike, are you ready to go?" his mother asked.

He took one last look at Bella and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready. It was good to see you again, Isabella."

"You too, Mike," Bella called as he left the store.

*o*o*

A few minutes later, Edward arrived to take Bella to lunch. Almost immediately, he asked her what was wrong, but Bella didn't know how Edward would take the news of Mike's visit, so she told him nothing was wrong and quickly changed the subject.

Edward didn't let the subject stay changed for long. As soon as they sat down in the restaurant, he again asked Bella what was bothering her.

"It's nothing, really. I'm just tried," Bella responded. She picked up her menu and began looking over her choices, even though she always ordered the same thing when they ate here.

"Bella," Edward called. "I know something is wrong. Did you get into another fight with your sisters?"

"No, it's nothing like that. I just had an unexpected visitor at work today."

"Okay," Edward said. "And who was it?"

"Do you remember me telling you about Mike Newton?"

"Yeah, the guy you were almost matched with, right?"

"Yes, well he came into the bakery with his mother today. She's the one who's having the cake made for her vow renewal ceremony."

"And he said something to upset you?" Edward guessed.

Bella sighed and told Edward the whole story. As she told him about her interaction with Mike, his face grew hard, and by the time she was finished letting him know what happened, he was mumbling something under his breath.

"See, this is why I didn't want to tell you," Bella said, pointing to Edward. "I knew you were going to upset and start brooding. Now you're going to be in a bad mood for days."

Edward's face softened immediately. "Baby, I'm sorry. I just can't believe he had the nerve to say all that to you, especially after you told him you were married."

Bella shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it now. It's over. I'm sure he'll move on as soon as he gets matched with someone."

"Still, I wish I could have been there to give him a piece of my mind. I understand why you couldn't, but him saying all that really pisses me off," Edward said.

"I know," Bella replied. "But can we please let it go now? I don't want him to ruin our lunch."

"You're right. I'm sorry," Edward said. "Let's talk about something else."

Lunch with Edward went a lot better after their talk about Mike. And for the rest of the day, Bella tried not to think too much about Mike's visit. She did things to keep herself busy, like help her sisters get ready for the vow renewal ceremony. She even agreed to go with them to the ceremony the next day to help set up the cake.

That night, as she lay in bed, no matter how hard she tried not to think about him, thoughts of Mike invaded her mind. She felt so glad that she hadn't been matched with him. And it wasn't just because she loved Edward so much. Mike seemed pushy and arrogant, and it really bothered her that he knew their compatibility score. She didn't even know what she and Edward had scored.

These thoughts threatened to keep Bella up all night, but when she felt Edward roll over in his sleep and put his arm around her, thoughts of Michael were soon replaced by sweet dreams of Edward.

*o*o*

"What time are we supposed to have the cake set up?" Bella asked.

"We're supposed to wait for Mrs. Newton to tell us if it passes inspection first," Alice replied rolling her eyes.

"Are you kidding me?" Bella sighed. "What's she going to do if she doesn't like it, have us bake another one on the spot?"

"I wouldn't put it past her," Rose called, appraising the simple three tiered cake once again.

"Thank God, I didn't end up in that family," Bella giggled.

"What a minute," Alice exclaimed. "He's _that_ Mike Newton. The one you were almost matched with?"

"Yep, that's him. I'm so glad Tanya listened to me."

"Me, too. I can't imagine having the Newtons as extended family." Alice cringed.

"Yes, and Bella and Edward are just perfect for each other," Rose said, smiling at her sister.

Bella nodded. "We really are. Especially because…"

"Because what?" Alice asked.

Bella hadn't told her sisters or anyone else about Edward being a Hopeless. She had struggled with whether or not to tell them, mostly because it wasn't her secret to tell. She knew that Rose and Alice would keep the secret, and even though she liked to think they wouldn't consider it a big deal, she wasn't a hundred percent sure of how they would react.

"If I tell you, you have to promise you won't tell anyone," Bella said, taking a seat at a counter.

"We promise," Alice said, sitting beside her sister.

Bella looked to Rose, and when she nodded, Bella continued. "Tanya told me once that Mike was the guy I _should_ be with. It's what the computer kept telling her, anyway. But she kept looking because I told her I did not want to be with him, and that's when she found Edward. But there were some things about him that she thought might be an issue."

"You mean that he went to college and had been in the Matching for two years?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Bella responded. "But that's not all."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "Edward and I had a talk one night. I had to know why he seemed to hate me so much when we first met. But he told me that he didn't hate me. He thought that I didn't like him because I was embarrassed about him."

"Why would he think that?" Rose asked, her brow creased.

"That's what I asked, and he told me it was because he's a Hopeless."

Bella held her breath, waiting to hear her sister's response to her admission.

"Wow," Alice breathed.

"Yeah, and that's why he didn't go through The Preparation. He didn't want to waste all that money when he thought he would never get matched."

"Wow," Alice repeated.

"Wait," Rose said, shaking her head. "How is it that Tanya didn't tell you this before you got matched?"

"I don't know," Bella sighed. "I was kind of upset at first, but I'm sure it had something to do with Mom. And besides, Edward didn't know I was a Romantic either."

"He didn't?" Alice asked. "Wow, this is so weird. Did you ever call Tanya to ask her why she didn't tell you before you signed the contract?"

"No. I thought about it, but I don't care. I'm happy and in love, and that's all that matters to me."

"Well, I think we can all agree to keep this from Renee, at least for the time being," Rose said, standing up.

"You're not upset?" Bella asked, still worried about what her sisters thought.

"If I was, would that change how you feel about Edward?" Rose asked.

"No," Bella replied, shaking her head.

"Exactly, and like you said, you're happy and in love, and that's all that matters to _me_."

"Me, too, Button," Alice said, wrapping her arms around her sister.

Bella hugged Alice back, glad that she had finally told her sisters the truth and thankful that they didn't care.

*o*o*

When Mike had gone to say hello to Bella before the reception, he had no idea he was going to overhear the conversation he did. But when he heard Bella talking about him, he couldn't help but listen.

He was angry that she told her matchmaker not to put him with her. Who was she to decide who ended up with whom? She wasn't a matchmaker. If the computer said Mike and Bella were supposed to be together, then that's what should have happened.

But his thinking changed once Bella started talking about her husband, Edward. Mike was no longer angry with Bella. He now felt bad for her. She didn't know that her husband was a Hopeless before they got married. That was unacceptable.

It didn't matter to him that Bella claimed to be happy with her husband. It didn't matter that she was convinced she belonged with him. It didn't matter that she thought she didn't want to be with Mike. What did matter was the ninety-two percent compatibility rating they shared. Mike didn't even care that she was a Romantic. It was something he could overlook. He knew from the first moment he laid eyes on her that they should be together.

He knew what he had to do. First thing in the morning, Mike was going to make a phone call. He was going to get Bella out of the horrible situation she was currently in. She would be upset at first, but he would be there soon to comfort her.

*o*o*

A couple of days later, Bella was trying to teach Edward how to mess with Emmett while playing Uno.

"Okay, so basically, all you have to do is cough a lot. Or say a bunch of weird stuff that doesn't make any sense."

"Like what?" Edward asked.

"Oh I don't know. Sometimes I use quotes from my favorite movies. For example, I'll say something like, 'The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.'" Bella started laughing, but Edward didn't look amused.

"Why are we doing this again?" he asked.

"Because it's hilarious, just wait until tomorrow. He's going to lose it. Rose and I do this kind of stuff every time we play, and when he figures out you're in on it too, he's going to go crazy. Don't worry, if he gets really upset, I'll protect you," Bella added when she noticed the nervous look on Edward's face.

"You'll protect me? That's sweet, but I don't think that's going to be necessary."

"Then why do you look so nervous?"

"I guess I just want your family to like me, and I think everyone does except for Emmett," he responded.

"He likes you," Bella answered. "He was sort of distant with Jasper in the beginning, too. He takes the brother-in-law thing really seriously, so he thinks he has to protect us, but it won't last forever. He and Jasper are best friends now."

Edward nodded but didn't look convinced. Bella felt bad. She knew Edward probably didn't believe her, but it was true. There was a time not so long ago that Jasper and Emmett hardly spoke. She knew there was one thing she could tell him that would possibly make him feel better but she was sworn to secrecy.

"All right," she began. "If I tell you something about Jasper and Emmett, do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Yeah, I promise," Edward said.

Bella sighed. "Right after Jasper and Alice got engaged, Emmett asked Jasper to take a drive with him. Jasper was really excited because he didn't think Emmett liked him, and he wanted to get on his good side. So they drove around for a while and eventually, Emmett pulled the car over and suggested they get out. That's when Emmett told Jasper that he didn't want to have to come back out there since it was such a long drive but that this is where he would dump the body. Jasper asked him what he was talking about, and Emmett said that if Jasper hurt Alice, he would kill him and dump his body out in the woods."

Edward's mouth was hanging open slightly when Bella finished her story.

"He didn't really mean it," Bella said quickly, realizing that this might not be the best story to put his mind at ease. "Emmett is a sweetheart. He couldn't hurt a fly. But you really can't say anything. Rose doesn't know and she would kill him."

"I don't believe it," Edward said.

"Oh, believe it. Rose is the one you should be nervous around—she's not afraid to fight and she fights dirty."

"No, not that, I can't believe Emmett. What he did to me was ten times worse."

Bella frowned. She knew that Emmett was likely to do something similar to Edward before they got married, but she couldn't remember a single instance when they were alone for any significant amount of time. "What did he do to you?" she asked.

"He took me to his car, opened the trunk, and inside there was rope, some tarp and a baseball bat. He told me that if I did anything to hurt you that I would get more acquainted with the items in the trunk."

"When did he do this?" Bella asked.

"At the wedding," Edward responded. "When he got Jasper to distract you, do you remember?"

Bella nodded. She was not happy. Emmett had promised not to do anything like this again; that was the only reason Alice promised not to say anything to Rose. Now that he had broken that deal, Bella couldn't wait to tell her sister what her husband had been up to. "He's going to be in so much trouble," Bella said.

"Why? What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to tell Rose what he's been doing. And she's going to kill him."

"Bella, you said yourself he was just joking. You don't need to get him in trouble because of me."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Fine, you're the one he threatened. If you don't want me to say anything, I won't. But I'm going to mess with him so bad tonight he's not going to know what hit him."

Edward laughed and shook his head. "I wish you could see your face right now. You're so cute when you're angry."

Just then, the phone started to ring and Bella went to answer it.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello, Bella, its Tanya."

"Hey, how are you?" Bella asked. She couldn't help but notice Tanya didn't sound like her normal cheerful self.

"I've been better. Bella, I have some bad news."

"Oh, okay. What is it?"

"Bella, I'm just going to be blunt here because this is a serious situation."

"All right," Bella responded. Now she definitely knew something was wrong. Not only was the tone of Tanya's voice off, but she was also calling about a serious situation. A serious situation she needed to be blunt about.

"Bella, you're aware that Edward is a Hopeless, correct?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that," she answered glancing at Edward. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her and Bella shrugged.

Tanya sighed. "I guess I'm glad you know. That makes things easier and harder."

"Tanya, what are you talking about?" Bella asked, a trace of the worry she felt working its way into her voice.

"Well, it makes it easier because I didn't want to be the one to tell you. But it make this harder because it's my fault, and I'm so very sorry, Bella."

"Wait, what's your fault?"

Tanya sighed again. There was a long pause before she continued speaking. "Someone reported to my boss that you weren't aware that Edward was a Hopeless when you were matched."

"Well, what does that mean?" Bella asked.

"It means there is going to be a hearing to determine whether you and Edward can stay together. If after the hearing it's decided that you two aren't a good match, then your marriage will be annulled and you'll be forced to separate."

Bella felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. All the air rushed out of her lungs. Tears started to work their way down her cheeks. Her legs felt like jelly and couldn't keep her standing, so she took a hard seat on the ground.

Edward was by her side in second. He took the phone from her and spoke with Tanya. Bella couldn't hear what he was saying to her-all she could hear was the sound of her crying. After a moment, Edward put the phone down and pulled Bella into his arms. He rocked her back and forth on the floor, telling things she was sure were supposed to sooth her.

When her tears finally quieted, Edward took her face in his hands and told her, his voice strained, "We'll figure this out, okay? I'm not going to lose you."

Bella nodded. She wasn't going to lose him, either.

* * *

So, I'm dying to know what everyone thinks! Pretty please let me know. I'd love to hear theories about what you all think is going to happen.

I'm halfway done with the next chapter and it should be up soon.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!


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